Skip Navigation



The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences Advance Access published online on February 27, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, doi:10.1093/gerona/gln064
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
64A/2/195    most recent
gln064v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kahn, A.
Right arrow Articles by Fraga, M. F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kahn, A.
Right arrow Articles by Fraga, M. F.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

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]

Epigenetics and Aging: Status, Challenges, and Needs for the Future

Arnold Kahn1,2 and Mario F. Fraga3

1 San Francisco Coordinating Center, California Pacific Medical Center
2 Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, California
3 Department of Immunology and Oncology, National Center for Biotechnology, CNB-CSIC, Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain

Address correspondence to Arnold Kahn, PhD, San Francisco Coordinating Center, California Pacific Medical Center, 185 Berry Street, Lobby 5, Suite 5700, San Francisco, CA 94107. Email: arnold.kahn{at}ucsf.edu


  Abstract

The interest in exploring the role of epigenetics in the aging process has grown tremendously in recent years as demonstrated, in part, by the steadily increasing number of papers that have been published in the area. In addition, there has been and continues to be rapid improvement in the technologies needed to do the work. However, significant challenges remain, not the least of which is inherent to the aging process itself, that is, that even given a uniform genetic background and external environment, aging is a "heterogeneous" phenomenon with variation in the expression of the aging phenotype evident both between and within individuals. Thus, there is a pressing need to find experimental approaches that recognize this reality and deal with it effectively whether it is in the choice of animal model, cell, or tissue sampling or the use of techniques capable of analyzing small samples, ideally in situ and in a longitudinal fashion. Undoubtedly, because of the complexity of the situation and what are likely to be very large data sets, bioinformatics and systems biology are also going to be needed, something discussed in detail elsewhere in the report of the meeting.

Keywords Epigenetics; Aging

Received: December 9, 2008; Accepted: December 10, 2008

Decision Editor: Huber R. Warner, PhD


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.