4 ms·

"the life cycle of mice are fundamentally different than humans. Their life span is too short to be a comparable organism when aging is the topic of research."

"the life cycle of mice are fundamentally different than humans. Their life span is too short to be a comparable organism when aging is the topic of research." You know, I feel ambivalent about this. On one side, you are obviously right, mice are very different from people. On the other side, the similarities between a 2 y.o. mouse and a 80 y.o. human are striking. Grey hair, weakening muscles, cataracts, declining memory, worse organ functions across the board, hunched back, tremors, compromised immunity etc. It certainly looks like fundamentally the same process, only sped up 40 times.

RelativeDelta 3y ago
It functionally is. Aging is just the build-up of error in genes as microscopic write errors accumulate in successive cell epochs. It is, in short, a degenerative process marked by the failure to perfectly maintain instruction sets for the creation and maintenance of structures that allowed for survival. Reading that back it almost sounds political.
- inglor_cz 3y ago
  "Aging is just the acclimation of error in genes as microscopic write errors accumulate in successive cell epochs." I don't think there is a scientific consensus on this particular mechanism as a root of aging. There is a lot of stuff happening along like epigenetic aging, accumulation of various toxins and seemingly pre-programmed atrophy of immune system in mammals. The only de-aging experiment that demonstrated some positive results in humans didn't touch genes at all. It was the TRIIM and TRIIM-X trial which attempted to rejuvenate the thymus and thus reinvigorate immunity. The subjects exhibit a lot of changes consistent with being a bit younger (a few years).
  - RelativeDelta 3y ago
    I am unfamiliar with "epigenetic aging". Are you talking about methylation causing worse performance in one arena or another? Immune atrophy and toxic accumulation I would read as being the terminal effects of decreased functionality as a result of error accumulation, no?
    - inglor_cz 3y ago
      The following page is written in a reasonably readable prose and lists all the currently accepted hallmarks of aging. Genomic instability is on the list, but many other things beside it. https://www.lifespan.io/topic/why-we-age/ https://www.lifespan.io/topic/why-we-age/ But there has been recent talk about adding five more: https://www.lifespan.io/news/researchers-propose-five-new-hallmarks-of-aging/ https://www.lifespan.io/news/researchers-propose-five-new-ha... Aging is complicated. Stuff like extracellular cross-linking of collagen through glycation cannot be reduced to genetic/epigenetic changes, and yet is obviously a huge problem for aged organisms.

RelativeDelta 3y ago

It functionally is. Aging is just the build-up of error in genes as microscopic write errors accumulate in successive cell epochs. It is, in short, a degenerative process marked by the failure to perfectly maintain instruction sets for the creation and maintenance of structures that allowed for survival. Reading that back it almost sounds political.

inglor_cz 3y ago
"Aging is just the acclimation of error in genes as microscopic write errors accumulate in successive cell epochs." I don't think there is a scientific consensus on this particular mechanism as a root of aging. There is a lot of stuff happening along like epigenetic aging, accumulation of various toxins and seemingly pre-programmed atrophy of immune system in mammals. The only de-aging experiment that demonstrated some positive results in humans didn't touch genes at all. It was the TRIIM and TRIIM-X trial which attempted to rejuvenate the thymus and thus reinvigorate immunity. The subjects exhibit a lot of changes consistent with being a bit younger (a few years).
- RelativeDelta 3y ago
  I am unfamiliar with "epigenetic aging". Are you talking about methylation causing worse performance in one arena or another? Immune atrophy and toxic accumulation I would read as being the terminal effects of decreased functionality as a result of error accumulation, no?
  - inglor_cz 3y ago
    The following page is written in a reasonably readable prose and lists all the currently accepted hallmarks of aging. Genomic instability is on the list, but many other things beside it. https://www.lifespan.io/topic/why-we-age/ https://www.lifespan.io/topic/why-we-age/ But there has been recent talk about adding five more: https://www.lifespan.io/news/researchers-propose-five-new-hallmarks-of-aging/ https://www.lifespan.io/news/researchers-propose-five-new-ha... Aging is complicated. Stuff like extracellular cross-linking of collagen through glycation cannot be reduced to genetic/epigenetic changes, and yet is obviously a huge problem for aged organisms.