BIOMARKERS OF AGING

DESAK MADE WIHANDANI

AGING
Aging

is a process that can affect almost

all the systems in the body.
With increasing age, physically and
mentally healthy adults gradually become
less fit and more vulnerable to illness and
death.
However, these changes happen at
different rates in different people

AGING
Chronological

age is the most obvious

marker of age.
An 80-year-old may be physiologically
better off than a 65-year-old.
The aging process can catch up to
different people at different times.

BIOMARKERS OF AGING
The

idea of biomarkers is to measure the

aging process, but it has been difficult to
separate this out from the effects of a
disease if one is present.
Studies on biomarkers of aging have
looked for changes in cells, hormones,
genes, and even behaviors to find a
predictor of the rate of aging.

BIOMARKERS OF AGING
Therefore,

scientists are looking for other

predictors of life span. While there are
several candidates for such "biomarkers of
aging," none have so far been proven to
be a true measure of the underlying aging
process. A true biomarker of aging must
meet certain criteria in order to be both
accurate and useful

CRITERIA FOR BIOMARKERS OF AGING

1. It must predict a person's physiological,
cognitive, and physical function in an agerelated way.
2. It must be able to be tested repeatedly without
harming the person.
3. It should work in laboratory animals as well as
humans.
Biomarkers need to be simple and inexpensive
to use. They should cause little or no pain and
stress. And they must measure aging accurately.

TARGETS FOR BIOMARKERS

No

biomarker has yet been successfully

identified. One difficulty has to do with the
overlap between aging and disease. Both the
aging process and diseases can cause changes
in the body, which affect life span
Another obstacle is the fact that some agerelated changes cause no harm, while others do.
It isn't entirely known which changes are harmful
and which are benign. This makes it more
difficult to pinpoint exactly what to look for.

TARGETS FOR BIOMARKERS

Age

at menopause has been suggested as

a possible biomarker of aging for women.
One study showed that women who had
early menopause (before age 44) had
shorter life spans than women who
experienced menopause at ages 50 to 54.
This suggests that ovarian function is
related to the overall aging process, but
the mechanistic links for this require further
study

RESEARCH FOR BIOMARKERS

Aging

doesn't occur at a single rate, and

therefore the rate of aging can't be measured.
Different body functions can change at different
rates over time. A person may lose muscle
strength faster than eyesight deteriorates. And
there can be different reasons for the
deterioration. For example, a person may lose
muscle strength faster because he or she never
had much strength to begin with.
There are still many researchers who believe
that there is a rate at which aging takes place
and that it can be measured.

BIOMARKERS FOR AGING

There

is a slow shift toward prevention instead

of curative research. Each researcher appears
to have a favorite marker for aging.
There are over fourty potential markers for aging
including lung capacity, systolic blood pressure,
cartilage telomere, lens density, serum
cholesterol, lipofuscin in cerebral ganglia, DHEA,
etc.

BIOMARKERS FOR AGING

Researchers

have identified certain aging

forces in the body: oxidative damage (oxidative
stress), ROS, faulty anti-oxidation system, DNA
damage and faulty DNA repair process,
alterations in gene expression, mitochondrial
damage, protein damage and decreased rate of
protein turn over, damage to lipids, glycation,
neuro-hormonal deregulation, genetic
programming of lifespan potential or a
synergetic effect of all these factors.