The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences Advance Access published online on February 18, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, doi:10.1093/gerona/gln062
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This article appears in the following The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences issue: Special Issue: Biology of Aging Summit [View the issue table of contents]
"Dividends" From Research on Aging—Can Biogerontologists, at Long Last, Find Something Useful to Do?
Department of Pathology and Geriatrics Center, Ann Arbor VA Medical Center, University of Michigan
Address correspondence to Richard A. Miller, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology and Geriatrics Center, Ann Arbor VA Medical Center, University of Michigan, 109 Zina Pitcher Place, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2200. Email: millerr{at}umich.edu
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Abstract |
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Biogerontologists and demographers have argued that the fastest, most cost-effective strategies for prevention of the medical problems that afflict those older than 60 years are likely to emerge from a deeper understanding of what factors time the aging process and how aging leads, in rough synchrony, to the many diseases and disabilities of aging. Biologists can support and refine this discussion by studies of slow-aging mice, of mice with disease-promoting mutations, of mice in which specific cellular responses have been abrogated by genetic or pharmaceutical interventions, of slow-aging dog and horse breeds, and of the factors, genetic and physiological, that coordinate lethal and nonlethal consequences of aging in people. More work is also needed to learn how timing of antiaging interventions can be used to optimize the balance between beneficial and undesirable effects.
Keywords Longevity; Health; Animal models; Interventions
Received: December 9, 2008; Accepted: December 10, 2008