Nowadays, the chances of going to a great-grandparent’s birthday party are much higher than before.

At birth, the average life expectancy is currently at 79 and expected to rise. With that comes more birthday parties, more sunsets, more time spent with family, and more, well, aging.

People are living longer — but not necessarily aging better. In many cases, the increase in years is an increase in time spent living with varying degrees of physical and mental deterioration.

Now, researchers in Texas are looking to red blood cells for clues on healthy aging.

Because aging goes hand in hand with less oxygen traveling to tissues in the body, researchers posit that this affects immunity and triggers chronic inflammation — the hallmark of most old-age conditions like loss of hearing and cognitive decline.

In previous work, scientists found that red blood cells cope with the low-oxygen conditions of high altitudes by signaling a receptor to increase the amount of oxygen delivered.

Using mouse models, researchers found that that same receptor could delay the effects of aging by signaling an increase of the amount of oxygen being delivered to tissues.

According to the study, this could ideally be the formative research behind a medication that triggers an increase in activity along the receptor. Researchers are bolstered by the promising results of a smaller study conducted around hyperbaric oxygen treatments, where patients were exposed to almost pure oxygen. This appeared to revitalize older adults’ immune cells and points to the continuation of their work as promising, while the increasing number of older adults living longer underscores its importance.