Study tests macrophage methylation–secretion coupling

I’m tightening the wording to the caption’s exact character budget while keeping the proposal clearly hypothetical. This proposed theory asks whether ageing changes niche macrophages, immune cells in stem-cell environments, so they release a repair signal. Researchers would sort cells from donors aged 20-30 or 65-75 years. They would measure DNA methylation, a chemical mark that can tune gene activity, at a DNA site controlled by IRF4, a gene-control protein. They would then treat the cells with specialized pro-resolving mediators, repair-guiding signals, and measure secretion of transforming growth factor beta 1, a protein that activates scar-forming fibroblasts. It predicts over 60% methylation in older donors and under 10% in younger donors, paired with an inverse secretion pattern.