The researchers suspected that these cells were being made senescent by something produced by gut bacteria.

研究人员怀疑，细胞出现老化是细菌产生的某些质所致。

The story starts with an observation, made a few years ago, that senescent cells often produce a molecule called P16INK4A.

衰老型细胞能够产生一种被称作是P16INK4A 的分子。

This treatment lowered the number of senescent and cancerous cells, suggesting the microbes were indeed to blame for promoting cancer.

此时，他们的怀疑得到了证。这种喂养方法减少了老化和癌化细胞的数量，表明微生确是诱发癌症的因素。

Senescent cells cause all sorts of malfunctions in their healthy neighbours.

衰老细胞会导致其健康邻居出现各种功能障碍。

And once they become too short, the cell dies or becomes one of those free-loading senescent cells.

一旦它们变得太短，细胞就会死亡或成为那些免费加载的衰老细胞之一。

Another path is to develop drugs that kill " senescent" cells for which the body has no further use.

另一种途径是开发杀死人体不再需要的“衰老”细胞。

And so people in the aging field have actually been trying to target senescent cells to try and remove them from aging tissues, thinking that this'll restore some anti-aging benefits.

因此衰老领域的人们际上一直在尝试针对衰老细胞，试图将它们从衰老组织中去除，认为这将有利于抗衰老。

By contrast, actually eliminating senescent cells may be a logical extension of the process of shutting them down (they certainly cannot cause cancer if they are dead), and thus may not have adverse consequences.

相反，际上消灭衰老型细胞可能是一段合乎逻辑的延伸，这个进程会将衰老型细胞排在大门之外（那么他们死亡后就当然不能致癌了），并且所以就不会有副作用了。

These markers accumulate with age; strip them back and you might produce the cells of a 20-year-old body inside one that is in fact 65. Mimicking calorie restriction and clearing out senescent cells would delay ageing.

这些标记随着年龄的增长而积累；如果把它们剥离开，你可能会在一个际上有 65 岁的身体内产生 20 岁的细胞。模仿卡路里限制并清除衰老细胞可以延缓衰老。