Ageing Pathways In Health And Disease Flashcards
What is gerontology?
The scientific study of the biological, physiological and sociological phenome associated with old age and aging
What is geriatrics
The branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and problems specific to the aged
What organisms do not age?
Bacteria
Hyphae
Some rockfish live 200+ years
Red Sea urchin is still fertile at 200 years plus
What is the current lifespan in the uk?
81.5 years
How long have supercentenarians lived for?
120 years
What are the two biological theories of aging?
The programmed theory of aging - August Weismann 1889
The damage theory of aging
Describe programmed theory of aging
Programmed longevity
Endocrine theory
Immunological theory
Describe the damage theory of aging
Wear and tear
Rate of living (metabolism)
Oxidative damage theory
Somatic DNA damage theory
What is darwins contribution to aging?
Too many offspring are produced for the limited resources and competition:
- better adapted individuals survive
What did August Weismann do?
First to formalise the mechanisms of darwins theory - aging is part of life’s programme because the old need to remove themselves from the theatre to make room for the next generation
Supported by the idea within a species - constant lifespan
What are the three mechanistic theories?
Mutation accumulation theory - Sir Peter Medawar (1952)
Antagonistic pleiotropy - George Williams 1957
The disposable soma theory - Tom kirkwood 1997
Describe the mutation accumulation theory
Random mutations accumulate later in life past the reproductive period hence not passed on
Late acting mutations - only a few bearers with still be alive so weak natural selection
Early acting mutations - most bearers still alive so a strong force of natural selection
Diseases with late onset are more common than early onset I.e. Huntingtons disease
Describe antagonistic pleiotropy
George Williams 1957
Genes that offer benefits early on in life with increased rate of ageing later on
Most individuals survive to express the early benefit
Benefits out weigh the negatives
Testosterone - sperm fertility but prostrate issues when older
Describe the disposable soma theory
Tom kirkwood 1997
Genes survive (germline) our bodies don’t (soma)
Bodies degrade once past peak of reproductive age
Aging is the result of a naturally degrading process that result in accumulation of damage
What are the three mechanistic theories of aging?
Rate of living theory - 1928
Hayflicks limit - molecular clock (Leonard hayflick 1961)
Free radical theory of aging (Denham Harman 1956)
Describe the rate of living theory
Degradation of live organisms is dependent on the exhaustion of a fixed quantity of a vital substance
Drosophila flies
15 degrees - 120 days
30 degrees - only lived for 21 days
Describe hayflicks limit - molecular clock
A cell can multiply a limited number of times
Placed male fibroblasts (divided many times) in with female (few times) - male remembered they had divided many times
Disproved the immortality theory of carreli - dogma at the time
Average cells divides 50 to 70 times
Also concluded most immortal cells are cancerous
Define life expectancy
Lifespan, the period of time in which the life events of a species typically occurs
Describe the free radical theory of aging
Denham Harman 1956
Lifespan is an inverse function of metabolic rate which in turn is proportional to oxygen consumption
Reactive oxygen species are produced in the mitochondria
This theory is not true
Describe the classical genetic approach to understanding aging
Isolate mutants with altered rates of ageing
Map, clone and sequence genes concerned
Identify lifespan determining proteins, biochemistry
Understand ageing?
What animals are used for models of ageing?
Nematodes, rabbits, drosophila
Ideally want animals that are short lived to collect the results quickly and over many generations
Humans are too complex
Who came up with the theory of dietary or calorific restriction?
Clive McKay 1930
What was the hypothesis of Clive McKay?
The lifespan of rats can be extended with a diet that is low in calories but adequate in nutrients
What were the three groups of rat Clive used?
Group 1: the rats were fed normally
Group 2: rats fed normally until weaning then on a calorie restricted diet
Group 3: fed normally until two weeks after weaning, then put on a calorie restricted diet
Out of the three groups Clive used which lived longer?
The calorie restricted group and had a higher median lifespan
Do not know the exact mechanism
What is c.elegans?
Microbiverious terrestrial nematode around 1.2mm long
Genome: around 97000000 bases
Around 19000 genes
What is c.elegans signs of ageing?
Reduced fertility, feeding, movement
Increased cuticular wrinkling (collagen cross linking)
Increased protein carbonyl, mitochondria DNA deletions, lipofusions
What is the average lifespan of c.elegans?
30 days
A mutation in which gene doubled the worms lifespan?
Daf-2
What does daf-2 encode?
Hormone receptor that is on the outside of cells and responds to a certain ligand (insulin like ligand)
What happens when decreased signalling through the insulin pathway occurs?
Increased lifespan/longevity
Also found in mice and dogs
Caloric restriction reduces insulin and IGF-1 (increases mammal longevity)
Who invented the free radical theory?
Denham Harman 1956
What was the underlying principle to the free radical theory?
Lifespan is an inverse function of metabolic rate which in turn is proportional to oxygen consumption
What percentage of cell energy does the mitochondria generate?
95%
What percentage of oxygen is used in energy formation?
97%-99%
What percentage of oxygen is utilised in ROS formation?
1-3%
Where are ROS a produced?
The mitochondria - electron transport chain
What were the observations that led to the mitochondria free radical theory of ageing?
- strong correlation between age and the level of reactive oxygen species generation and oxidative damage
- mitochondrial function is gradually lost during ageing
- inhibition of mitochondrial function can enhance ROS production
- several age dependent diseases are associated with severe increases in oxidative stress