Engineered ECMs could rejuvenate aged tissues by restoring youthful signaling microenvironment

We focus on cells as the units of aging, but the extracellular matrix may be the real control layer.

Aged tissues do not just have old cells—they have old ECM. Collagen crosslinking increases, elastin fragments, proteoglycan composition shifts. These changes create a microenvironment that drives senescence and limits stem cell function.

The hypothesis: engineered ECM scaffolds could reprogram aged tissues by restoring youthful signaling cues—not by adding cells, but by changing the context cells inhabit.