Trial reportThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2021
Horticultural Therapy Reduces Biomarkers of Immunosenescence and Inflammaging in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Feasibility Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.
Trial report in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evidence gaps in the effects of exercise on SASP-Related biomarkers in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.BMC geriatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Nature-based interventions for older adults: a systematic review of intervention types and methods, health effects and pathways.Age and ageing · 2025Pooled it
- Influence of Exercise on Exhausted and Senescent T Cells: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Pooled it
- A compendium of circulating biomarkers of senescence in humans: Insights on mechanistic impact across health domains and modulation by therapeutic interventions.Ageing research reviews · 2026Review
- Understanding Multiple Intelligences Among Older Adults: Development and Validation of the Multiple Intelligence Scale for Older People.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Review
- Circulating cell type senescence signatures track distinct dimensions of health status and trajectories in human longitudinal cohorts.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Chronic Kidney Disease and Cellular Senescence.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Urban Care Farming to Enhance Quality of Life Among Older Adults: Protocol for a Waitlist Randomized Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Circulating Cell Type Senescence Signatures Reveal High-Resolution Health Status and Trajectories in Human Longitudinal Studies.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Beyond survival: psychoneuroimmunology-driven cancer psychological rehabilitation-a paradigm shift from symptom management to biobehavioral remodeling.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Evidence for an energetic trade-off model linking inflammaging and immunosenescence in the US Health and Retirement Study and UK Biobank.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Inflammaging is minimal among forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Immunosenescence and the Geriatric Giants: Molecular Insights into Aging and Healthspan.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Expression patterns of blood-based biomarkers of neurodegeneration and inflammation across adulthood in rhesus macaques.Experimental gerontology · 2025Article
- Impact of Community-Based Food Interventions on Health, Well-being, and Social Connectedness of Older Adults: A Scoping Review.Health & social care in the community · 2025Article
- A silver bullet for ageing medicine?: clinical relevance of T-cell checkpoint receptors in normal human ageing.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Effects of Health-Promoting Lifestyle on Late-Onset Depression in Older Adults: Mediating Effect of Meaning in Life and Interleukin-6 (IL-6).Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Article
- Article
- Cellular senescence: the good, the bad and the unknown.Nature reviews. Nephrology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWith the challenges that aging populations pose to health care, interventions that facilitate alleviation of age-related morbidities are imperative. A prominent risk factor for developing age-related morbidities is immunosenescence, characterized by increased chronic low-grade inflammation, resulting in T-cell exhaustion and senescence. Contact with nature and associated physical activities have been shown to boost immunity in older adults and may be promoted in the form of horticultural therapy (HT). We aimed to examine the effects of HT on immunosenescence.
methodWe conducted a randomized controlled trial with 59 older adults assigned to either the HT intervention or waitlist control group. Older adults in the HT intervention group underwent HT intervention program over 6 months. Venous blood was drawn at baseline and at the third and sixth month from the commencement of this study. For participants who attended all 3 blood collection time points (HT: n = 22; waitlist: n = 24), flow cytometry analysis was performed on whole blood samples to evaluate the kinetics of lymphocyte subsets over the intervention period, revealing the composition of CD4+ and CD8+ subsets expressing exhaustion markers-CD57, CTLA4, and KLRG1. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were employed to measure changes in plasma IL-6 levels.
resultsHT is associated with increased numbers of naive CD8+ T cells and fewer CTLA4-expressing terminally differentiated effector CD4+ and CD8+ memory T cells re-expressing CD45RA (TEMRA). Furthermore, IL-6 levels were reduced during HT, and the frequencies of naive and TEMRA CD8+ T cells were found to be associated with IL-6 levels.
conclusionHT is associated with a reduction in the levels of biomarkers that measure the extent of T-cell exhaustion and inflammaging in older adults. The positive effects of HT on T-cell exhaustion were associated with the reduction of IL-6 levels.
Indexed as
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.