bims-mithem Biomed News
on Mitochondria in Hematopoiesis
Issue of 2026–07–05
two papers selected by
Tim van Tienhoven, Erasmus Medical Center
  1. Mitochondrial quality control in human ageing and longevity.
  2. Psychological stress drives aging-like hematopoietic stem cell dysfunction through a brain-gut-bone marrow axis.
  1. Nat Metab. 2026 Jun 29.
    Mitochondrial quality control in human ageing and longevity.
    Anna Picca, Luigi Ferrucci.
      Mitochondria play central roles in cellular metabolism and in key processes such as inflammation, stress response, cell death and signalling. Mitochondrial quality control (MQC) mechanisms continuously monitor organelle integrity and function, and repair or eliminate damaged mitochondria to replace them with newly formed, healthy organelles. MQC is particularly important under metabolic or environmental stress conditions. Failure of MQC paves the way to chronic diseases, such as diabetes, metabolic syndromes and immunosenescence. This Review summarizes our current understanding of MQC biology in the context of healthy human longevity. We explore the regulation of MQC in physiological conditions and explain how the dysregulation of MQC in ageing negatively impacts systemic metabolism and immune function. We discuss emerging therapeutic strategies-such as NAD+, AMPK activators and caloric restriction-that maintain a robust MQC to improve metabolic resilience and illustrate how preclinical and clinical studies can leverage MQC as a potential gerotherapeutic target.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-026-01563-3
  2. Cell Stem Cell. 2026 Jul 02. pii: S1934-5909(26)00204-3. [Epub ahead of print]33(7): 1205-1222.e11
    Psychological stress drives aging-like hematopoietic stem cell dysfunction through a brain-gut-bone marrow axis.
    Xiaobin Tian, Binghuo Wu, Keyue Yang, Ying Wang, Yishan Li, Jingjing Guan, Kaitao Wang, Yijun Zhao, Kexin Sun, Yanjun Ling, Jiayin Zheng, Mengyun Xie, Weiming Liu, Xiaojing Ye, Changzheng Li, Linjia Jiang, Meng Zhao.
      Chronic stress influences hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). However, how psychological stress regulates HSC function remains incompletely understood. Here, we show that psychological stress impairs HSC self-renewal and lymphoid differentiation, inducing aging-like phenotypes. Stress suppresses neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and periaqueductal gray (PAG), leading to HSC dysfunction, whereas chemogenetic activation of these regions restores HSC function. Psychological stress or chemogenetic inhibition of the mPFC and PAG reduces the abundance of L. reuteri in the gut microbiota and lowers spermidine levels. Mechanistically, spermidine depletion suppresses mitochondrial autophagy, promotes mitochondrial peroxidative stress, and increases ferroptotic stress in HSCs. We further demonstrate that mPFC and PAG activity regulate the intestinal environment through a sympathetic pathway, reducing intestinal mucin levels, L. reuteri abundance, and spermidine levels. These findings identify a brain-gut-bone marrow axis linking psychological stress to aging-like HSC dysfunction through sympathetic regulation of intestinal microbiota and spermidine metabolism.
    Keywords:  aging; autophagy; hematopoietic stem cell; intestinal environment; lymphoid differentiation; metabolism; microbiota; psychological stress; spermidine; sympathetic pathway
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2026.05.012
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