An Israeli-led team of researchers reports findings indicating that mammals with larger pancreatic cells age faster, while those with smaller cells seem to live longer. (Web photo)

JERUSALEM, June 18 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli-led team of researchers reported on Monday findings indicating that mammals with larger pancreatic cells age faster, while those with smaller cells seem to live longer.

The research result by scientists from Israel, Canada, and Germany was published in the journal Developmental Cell.

"A correlation between two things that are so remote was shockingly beautiful and unexpected," Yuval Dor, head of the team, from the Hebrew University's Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, said in a statement released by the university.

Until recently, scientists believed that most mammals' organs grow by cell proliferation. However, Dor and his colleagues noticed that the volume of each pancreatic cell of newborn mice is significantly smaller than that of adults.

Repeated measurements showed that the growth of individual pancreatic cells, known as acinar cells, is responsible for much of the pancreas growth after birth.

"This was surprising because the assumption was that post-natally, the pancreas grows by increasing the number of cells, just as most organs do," said Dor.

The researchers put this observation to test by analyzing cell samples taken from mammals from the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo and Israel's Kimron Veterinary Institute. Pancreas samples from a variety of mammals, from tiny Etruscan shrews to tigers, were examined.

When analyzing the data, they found that "mammalian species that aged faster had larger acinar cells, whereas species that lived longer had smaller acinar cells," the statement read.

The researchers said they want to further study the molecular mechanism which underlies their observation to understand the link between bigger cells and aging.