Gizmodo reports:

Our liver stays plenty youthful even as we get older, new research this week suggests. Using a form of radioactive dating, the researchers estimate that the average age of our liver’s cells is around three years. Some cells seem to live longer than others, however, a finding that may one day help scientists better understand how and why conditions like liver cancer can happen.

The new study was led by scientists at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany. They tried to estimate the longevity of liver cells previously collected from more than 30 people who had died of various causes between the ages of 20 and 84. To do this, they relied on a technique called retrospective radiocarbon birth dating, which was developed in the early 2000s.

Levels of radiocarbon activity in the environment have increased and decreased over recent decades, thanks to the start and end of above-ground nuclear weapons testing. And because trace amounts of radiocarbon in the environment can end up in the DNA of plant and animal cells, scientists have been able to use this environmental radiocarbon as a sort of measuring stick for a cell’s age. The older a cell is, the more radiocarbon likely to be in its DNA.

When the team dated the liver cells from their sample group, they found a consistent pattern no matter the age of the person: Most cells were young and around the same age. [Continue reading…]