Aging research

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The vision of eternal youth has preoccupied people for centuries. Here the painting of a fountain of youth by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. from 1546 (painted at the age of 74).

The aging research examines interdisciplinary scientific methods, the phenomenon of aging . Various complex and in some cases not yet understood mechanisms are responsible for the aging of biological systems such as cells , tissues and organisms . This process limits the lifespan of living things. To this day, there is no universally valid and scientifically accepted answer to the question of why organisms age. This is what the so-called aging theories deal with.

Average life expectancy in industrialized countries has doubled for both women and men over the past 120 years. The higher life expectancy together with a low birth rate in the OECD countries is leading to serious social upheavals. Society is “aging”. At the same time, more serious illnesses occur in old age that limit the quality of life.

Definitions and demarcations

Aging research is a research area of ​​many disciplines. "Aging" is understood as an irreversible, accelerating loss of function of living systems. In addition, “aging” goes hand in hand with a reduced ability to adapt to environmental influences. Research is therefore not only focused on humans, but also on other animal and plant species.

Bernhard Strehler highlighted four so-called aging criteria: Aging is accordingly a process to which all living organisms are subject, which progresses, which is harmful to the organism and which is intrinsic to the living system itself, i.e. it does not need an external trigger. This definition also allows the demarcation of " senescence ", a process that describes a gradual and slow accumulation of harmful effects. Senescence is therefore subordinate to the word "aging", but can contribute to aging. An example of an accumulating effect is the telomeres of the chromosomes . The telomeres sit like a protective cap at the ends of the chromosomes and are shortened with each cell division. This has been linked to cell aging.

However, since aging is not only dependent on biological and medical factors, but also e.g. B. also of socio-demographic and economic, psychology , sociology , economics and pedagogy also deal with aging research .

The Gerontology other hand, explores biological, medical, psychological and social aspects of aging. It is focused exclusively on people.

Elderly tobacco user

The geriatrics , also known as old-age or elderly medicine or old medicine, is a special discipline of medicine . It deals with the physical, mental, functional and social aspects of old patients. She also takes care of rehabilitation and prevention of old people and their special situation at the end of their life. The majority of geriatric patients are older than 80 years. Their life situation is often shaped by many diseases at the same time ( multimorbidity ).

“Aging” can be differentiated from “aging”, a term for wear and tear and structural changes in materials and inanimate systems. According to this definition, aging is associated with a simultaneous dysfunction.

Aims of aging research

Development of life expectancy in Germany with a forecast for the year 2040: More and more people are reaching old age, while the maximum life span remains the same at around 120 years.

The increasing life expectancy in the industrialized countries is primarily due to improved hygiene , better nutrition and reduced child mortality . The maximum life expectancy ώ (maximum attainable age) of the human species, however, has remained almost constant over the past 100 years. It is around 120 years.

The primary goal of aging research is therefore not to push the limit of mortality to an even higher age. The aim is to enable a healthy and self-determined life for as long as possible, to extend the so-called health span. The curve of normal aging with only slight impairments into old age should therefore be aligned with the ideal typical aging curve in the sense of aging research.

Primary and Secondary Aging

Examples of different aging processes:
(1) Progeria aging (premature aging)
(2) Accelerated aging due to risk factors such as high blood pressure, tobacco smoking, obesity and the like. ä.
(2A) without therapeutic measures
(2B) with therapeutic action after two acute events such as stroke or myocardial infarction
(3) typical aging curve to dementia with rapid functional impairment and a long period of disability and care dependency
(4) normal aging history in healthy humans with only minor impairments even in old age
(5) ideal aging process

Aging as a physiological process is one of the least understood phenomena in biology. Every organism, every tissue and every cell ages even without external influences and relatively independently of environmental conditions. These universal processes are also called primary aging. They are mainly determined by the genetic information of the individual. A distinction is also made between secondary aging, which is triggered by external influences. This can e.g. B. be environmental influences that have a direct effect on the physiological processes. But social and psychological environmental influences also play a role in secondary aging.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c W. W. Heiss: Aging and senescence . In: WW Heiss: geriatric medicine current. Verlag CH Beck, Freiburg 2012.
  2. ↑ universality, progressiveness, deleterousness, intrinsicalty. SL Coles: The life and contributions of Professor Bernhard L. Strehler, founding Editor-in-Chief of Mechanisms of Aging and Development, Professor of Biology at the University of Southern California . In: Mechanism of Aging and Development. 2002, pp. 821-825.
  3. ↑ Rudolph et al: Longvity, stress response, and cancer in aging telomerase-deficient mice. In: Cell. 96 (5) 1999, pp. 701-712 (online)
  4. ↑ Duden: Gerontology. Bibliographical Institute, Berlin 2013.
  5. ↑ J. Brother, C. Lucke, A. Schramm, H. Tews, H. Werner: Was ist Geriatrie . Expert commission of the German Society for Gerontology and Geriatrics and the German Society for Geriatrics. Rügheim 1991.
  6. ↑ a b c T. Nikolaus: Age and Aging. In: RF Schmidt, G. Thews, F. Lang: Physiologie des Menschen. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 2000, pp. 708-716.
  7. ↑ J. Krutmann: Environment-induced aging processes. In: Annual Report 2008. German Research Foundation.