New Study Reveals Age-Specific Acceleration of Aging
Medical News
In a study published August 2024, 108 subjects aged 25 to 75 were followed for a median of 1.7 years to determine if the aging process is mostly a continuous linear process or if it is non-linear and accelerates at certain ages.
The researchers measured multiple markers of body aging. They measured RNA expression and regulation, lipid functions, protein functions, inflammatory markers, metabolites, lab tests measuring renal functions, diabetes, and blood counts, and microbiome evaluation of the skin, mouth, nose and gut. In total they measured 135,239 biological features which resulted in over 2.4 billion data points.
What they discovered was that rather than aging being a continuously progressive process, the data indicated there were two ages around which some markers of aging increased more rapidly. At about age 44 and age 60 there were two crests in the amount of measured molecular markers of aging.
They found only 6.6% of molecules tested showed linear changes during aging. 81% demonstrated a non-linear pattern, with some cresting. They discovered that molecules that were markers for oxidative stress increased significantly at age 60. Oxidative stress may cause inflammation which can have numerous deleterious effects on the body. A critical threshold for the development of type 2 diabetes and renal impairment also occurred at age 60.
Beyond Linear Aging: New Insights
Although it seems intuitive that aging would be a continuously progressive process, this study indicates that there may be peaks and valleys of aging (or biochemical markers of aging), resulting in periods in people’s lives where aging may be more rapid. A similar non-linear pattern of aging markers was also reported in another scientific study, which studied body proteins, discovered crests of aging markers at ages 34, 60, and 78. As understanding of this non-linear model of the ageing process increases, it potentially may lead to new diagnostic or preventive strategies.
References
Shen, X., Wang, C., Zhou, X. et al. Nonlinear dynamics of multi-omics profiles during human aging. Nat Aging (2024). Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-024-00692-2
Lehallier, B. et al. Undulating changes in human plasma proteome profiles across the lifespan. Nat. Med. 25, 1843–1850 (2019). Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0673-2
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