Lymphoma accelerates T cell and tissue aging

The combined effects of aging and cancer on immune cells were investigated in young versus aged mice harboring B cell lymphoma, and in T cells from young and aged B cell lymphoma patients. These analyses revealed that lymphoma alone is sufficient to trigger transcriptional, epigenetic, and phenotypic alterations in young T cells that manifest in aged T cells. In contrast, aged T cells are largely resistant to lymphoma-induced changes. Pathway analyses revealed open chromatin regions and genes controlling iron homeostasis are induced by both lymphoma and aging, and lymphoma-experienced and aged T cells have increased iron pools and are resistant to ferroptosis. Furthermore, both aged and lymphoma-experienced T cells have defects in proteostasis. B cell lymphoma also accelerates aging of other tissues, as evidenced by elevated expression of Cdkn2a and Tnfa. Finally, some lymphoma-induced aging phenotypes are reversible whereas others are fixed, indicating opportunities for improving some cancer-associated aging comorbidities.