Fig. 1: Senescent recipients showed reduced rejection following kidney transplantation.

a Relative telomere length of PBMCs collected before surgery in ACR and Non-ACR patients from ZJU, China using T/S methods, n = 119/group. b Kaplan-Meier curves of allografts stratified by long and short telomere, n = 60 and n = 56, respectively. c Schematic diagram of the animal experimental design. d Representative image of PAS staining of Young WT, Young G3 Terc^−/−, Old WT and Old G3 Terc^−/− mouse allografts. Scale bar, 50 μm. e Quantitative analysis of healthy tubule count per field, n = 3/group. f Quantitative analysis of i, t and v scores according to Banff 2019, n = 3/group. g Representative image of CD8⁺ T cells (CD8, green) immunofluorescent staining of allografts. Scale bar, 50 μm. Quantitative analysis of CD8⁺ T cell numbers per field is shown on the right side, n = 3/group. h Flow cytometric gating of lymphocytes, living cells, single cells, and CD8⁺ T cells. Representative flow panels of IFN-γ⁺CD8⁺ T cells from allografts of three groups of mice are shown. Quantitative analysis of the IFN-γ⁺CD8⁺ T ratios are shown on the right side, n = 3/group. i Expression level of Tbx21 normalized for the numbers of T cells in allografts analyzed using qPCR, n = 3/group. j Expression level of Ifng normalized for the numbers of T cells in allografts analyzed using qPCR, n = 3/group. k Expression level of Gzmb normalized for the numbers of T cells in allografts analyzed using qPCR, n = 3/group. l Expression level of Prf1 normalized for the numbers of T cells in allografts analyzed using qPCR, n = 3/group. Data are presented as mean ± SD. m Kaplan-Meier curves of Young WT, Young G3 Terc^−/−, Old WT and Old G3 Terc^−/− mice treated with Tacrolimus 1 mg/kg/day after transplantation, n = 10/group. Statistical analysis was performed using two-tailed Student’s t-test (a, d–j) or Log-Rank test (b). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001. ACR, Acute cellular rejection. Non-ACR, Non-acute cellular rejection.