Spaceflight may make certain types of human stem cells age faster, a study suggests — but at least some of the damage may be reversible.

Spending time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) induced aging-like changes in a group of cells key for the health of blood and the immune system, known as hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), a new study in the peer-reviewed Cell Stem Cell journal reports.

"The findings show that the cells lost some of their ability to make healthy new cells, became more prone to DNA damage and showed signs of faster aging at the ends of their chromosomes after spaceflight — all signs of accelerated aging," representatives of the University of California San Diego said in a statement about the study. (The paper's first author is UC San Diego's Jes

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