Annotated Bibliography

A recent study was done at McMaster University in Ontario to see whether the signs of ageing were unavoidable. This study involves mice as test subjects that they were designed to age prematurely. The mice was put on a regimen of exercises, where the results have showed that it prevented the signs of ageing and even reverse the early ageing in the mice. The mice that remained inactive have grown with signs of weakened, ill, wizened, and bald. In contrast, mice that were provided with running wheels, they maintained in healthy muscles, brains, hearts, reproductive

Scientist have seen that telomerase expressing clones have no difference in karyotype but have a long lifespan by 20 doublings. With this research, cells have been seen to have a very youthful looking state for much longer. A last area of study is the hypothalamus of the brain. This part of the brain controls reproduction, growth, metabolism, and aging. This is where many of the age related diseases occur. The study of this area can lead to many advancements in age related diseases that can help people live longer. Though this area of study does not have many advancements it holds promising results. Though there have been numerous advancements, many people ask the question whether people need to live longer because of an already over populated Earth.

Suzman, R., Beard, J. R., Boerma, T., & Chatterji, S.Health in an ageing world—what do we know? The Lancet, 385(9967), 484-486. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61597-X

Humans undergo several stages during their lifetime including growth, development, reproduction and senescence. Senescence is defined as the deteriorative biological changes that organisms experience as they age eventually leading to death. These changes include low metabolism, a weak immune system, memory loss, poor vision and loss of hearing. Senescence begins in humans during their post-reproductive years. However, gerontology research has shown that individuals who reproduce late have longer life spans compared to individuals who reproduce early. Nonetheless, it does not indicate that senescence is inevitable. All organisms experience senescence,

The greater longevity and improved health seen at older ages in many parts of the world represent one of the crowning achievements of the last century, but also present a significant

At the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) they conducted a study on age-related cell damage

It is a known fact that all measures of physiological function decline in human aging. While genetics certainly play a role in the declining of physiological function with age, it can be argued that a fundamental part of aging can be reflected by chemical processes resulting in the appearance of harmful side products of the normal metabolism over time. When enzymes speed up reactions it is harder to slow them down. At the same time side reactions are constantly occurring and more and more unwanted side products are continuously being formed.

Genetic risk factors for HS-aging have been recently identified. Unlike AD, the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) genotype is not a risk factor for HS-aging [11]. Potassium channel subfamily M regulatory

In “Does Exercise Slow the Aging Process,” an article looking at exercise in regards to the aging process, Gretchen Reynolds suggests that exercise does in fact give us a higher chance of living longer. Reynolds analyzes the length of telomeres, tiny caps found on the end of DNA strands, which tend to become longer with exercise and thus slow the fraying of the telomeres. This increase in length translates into a longer period of time that the telomeres take to decay. Because telomeres naturally shorten and fray, Reynolds explains that the risk of smaller telomeres declined significantly the more an individual exercised in order to demonstrate the causation between exercise and the aging process. The article offers insight into the aging process of cells to target those who wish to live longer since telomere length is predictive of

Provided the demographic changes affecting America, it is increasingly important to identify the key factors in healthy aging and longevity. The prohibitive cost of health care for chronically ill individuals makes it important to pursue all avenues of study related to health in an aging population. Genetics is thought to comprise ~30% of the multi-faceted factors associated with longevity. It is important to summarize the current information available on the molecular basis of longevity to provide the foundation for future therapies. Two of the most highly associated genes with longevity across populations are APOE and FOXO3A. Additionally, signaling cascades associated with inflammation, immunity, nitrous oxide, and DNA

Reduced health problems or occurrence of disability causing diseases is one of the major problems in ageing process besides an extended life span. Daf-2 was one of the first few genes that were discovered to be directly involved in extending the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans (Kenyon et al., 1993). Considerable evidence in past has been provided by the association of mitochondrial abnormalities (Trifunovic and Larsson, 2008), genetic instability, altered intercellular signaling, an imbalance in hormones and reduced cell replacement capacity as key players in regulating cellular ageing (Figure 2 A). Being a central component involved in cellular metabolism and a major factor in disease occurrence, various studies utilizing protein quality

As individuals age changes occur physiologically that are part of normal aging. These changes occur in all organ systems and can impact an individual’s quality of life. The changes related to aging can be attributed to an individual’s genetic make up, lifestyle, physical activity, and dietary lifestyle. Being able to differentiate between normal changes in aging against disease process is important because it can help clinicians develop a plan of care (Boltz, Capezuti, Fulmer, & Zwicker, 2012). Creating an accurate plan of care for older adults will greatly impact their quality of life.

Our ancestors had a different eating and lifestyle habits that differ greatly from our own today. With the increase in industrialization our culture has rapidly changed from our ancestors 10,000 years ago. Today we have improved our living conditions, sanitation, treatment of diseases, etc. that now our life expectancy has doubled. Since we have made these improvements there has been an increase in the amount of cases of chronic degenerative diseases. On the surface it may seem that an increase to these diseases is due to our rise in life expectancy, but this is not the sole reason. Even though our technology and way of living was changing our genes were not adapting at the same rate. The types and amount of food we were consuming was changing,

Throughout human existence, aging has been viewed as a large mystery and was thought to be a process that occurs naturally amongst all living organisms. It was discovered that senescence rates differ and there are species that exhibit negligible senescence. Studies involving longevity revealed that the FOXO family of transcription factor plays a large role in extending the lifespan of many different organisms, including humans. These transcription factors upregulate the genes involved in cell cycle arrest, oxidative stress, metabolism, and proteostasis, all of which are important in maintenance and quality control. When the functions of the transcription factors are conserved in organisms, lifespan is lengthened. Here, we will determine whether FOXO-dependent proteostasis impacts aging and how it impacts it. It remains unknown whether changes in FOXO expression or activity impact cellular quality control during aging. It is important to examine because proteostasis pathways

Aging is the process of becoming older, as we age, multiple mutations occur that concern all the processes of aging well as it compromising a number of different genes. There are many theories of biological aging, such as the Cellular Aging Theory, Immunological Theory, and the Wear and Tear Theory. The Cellular Aging theory describes the process of aging in which cells slow their number of replication, thus giving each species a “biological clock that determines its maximum life span” and how quickly one 's health will deteriorate(Hooyman, 42). After a certain number of years, each cell which follows an apparent biological clock starts to replicate itself less, thus the specific individual or species slowly deteriorates. This theory gives