Search results for " ageing"
showing 10 items of 233 documents
Ageing via perception costs of reproduction magnifies sexual selection.
2018
Understanding what factors modulate sexual selection intensity is crucial to a wide variety of evolutionary processes. Recent studies show that perception of sex pheromones can severely impact male mortality when it is not followed by mating (perception costs of reproduction). Here, we examine the idea that this may magnify sexual selection by further decreasing the fitness of males with inherently low mating success, hence increasing the opportunity for sexual selection. We use mathematical modelling to show that even modest mortality perception costs can significantly increase variability in male reproductive success under a wide range of demographic conditions. We then conduct a series …
Genome-wide association meta-analysis highlights light-induced signaling as a driver for refractive error
2018
Skin affections after sulfur mustard (SM) exposure include erythema, blister formation and severe inflammation. An antidote or specific therapy does not exist. Anti-inflammatory compounds as well as substances counteracting SM-induced cell death are under investigation. In this study, we investigated the benzylisoquinoline alkaloide berberine (BER), a metabolite in plants like berberis vulgaris, which is used as herbal pharmaceutical in Asian countries, against SM toxicity using a well-established in vitro approach. Keratinocyte (HaCaT) mono-cultures (MoC) or HaCaT/THP-1 co-cultures (CoC) were challenged with 100, 200 or 300 mM SM for 1 h. Post-exposure, both MoC and CoC were treated with 1…
Cellular and molecular basis of the imbalance between vascular damage and repair in ageing and age-related diseases: As biomarkers and targets for ne…
2016
Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that specific subsets of cells isolated from the peripheral blood, play an essential role in the imbalance of damage and repair during age-associated diseases, such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, osteoporosis and cancer. Endogenous regeneration of the vessel wall involves cells of the vascular wall, inflammatory cells, circulating precursors, and mature endothelial cells, which are capable to restore the endothelium in a concerted interaction. Early detection of such imbalances with specific biomarkers may reduce age-associated diseases and subsequent cardiovascular events. Likewise, new strategies have …
The emerging role of Notch pathway in ageing: Focus on the related mechanisms in age-related diseases
2016
Notch signaling is an evolutionarily conserved pathway, which is fundamental for the development of all tissues, organs and systems of human body. Recently, a considerable and still growing number of studies have highlighted the contribution of Notch signaling in various pathological processes of the adult life, such as age-related diseases. In particular, the Notch pathway has emerged as major player in the maintenance of tissue specific homeostasis, through the control of proliferation, migration, phenotypes and functions of tissue cells, as well as in the cross-talk between inflammatory cells and the innate immune system, and in onset of inflammatory age-related diseases. However, until …
Role of non-coding RNAs in age-related vascular cognitive impairment: An overview on diagnostic/prognostic value in Vascular Dementia and Vascular Pa…
2020
Age is the pivotal risk factor for different common medical conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and dementia. Among age-related disorders, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, represent the leading causes of premature mortality strictly related to vascular ageing, a pathological condition characterized by endothelial dysfunction, atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart disease and stroke. These features negatively impact on the brain, owing to altered cerebral blood flow, neurovascular coupling and impaired endothelial permeability leading to cerebrovascular diseases (CVDs) as Vascular Dementia (VD) and Parkinsonism (VP). It is an increasing opinion that neurodegenerativ…
Endothelial progenitor cells in ageing
2016
“The senescence status of somatic stem/progenitor cells contributes to ageing process”, and “an individual is as old as old are its stem cells”. These quotes represent the concepts, which are actually object of investigations of researchers involved in ageing studies.
THE EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF INFLUENZA VACCINATION IN OLDER PEOPLE: AN UMBRELLA REVIEW OF EVIDENCE FROM META-ANALYSES OF BOTH OBSERVATIONAL AND RANDOMI…
2020
Vaccination is the main public health intervention to prevent influenza. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of influenza vaccination including systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Peer-reviewed systematic reviews with meta-analyses of prospective studies that investigated the association of influenza vaccination with any health-related outcome, as well as RCTs that investigated the efficacy and safety of influenza vaccination, were included. Among 1240 references, 6 meta-analyses were included. In cohort studies of community-dwelling older people influenza vaccination was associated with a lower risk of hospitalizat…
Anti-ageing gene therapy: Not so far away?
2019
Improving healthspan is the main objective of anti-ageing research. Currently, innovative gene therapy-based approaches seem to be among the most promising for preventing and treating chronic polygenic pathologies, including age-related ones. The gene-based therapy allows to modulate the genome architecture using both direct (e.g., by gene editing) and indirect (e.g., by viral or non-viral vectors) approaches. Nevertheless, considering the extraordinary complexity of processes involved in ageing and ageing-related diseases, the effectiveness of these therapeutic options is often unsatisfactory and limited by their side-effects. Thus, clinical implementation of such applications is certainly…
Analysis of T and NK cell subsets in Sicilian population from young to supercentenarian: the role of age and gender
2021
Summary Ageing dramatically affects number and function of both innate and adaptive arms of immune system, particularly T cell subsets, contributing to reduced vaccination efficacy, decreased resistance to infections and increased prevalence of cancer in older people. In the present paper, we analysed the age‐related changes in the absolute number of lymphocytes in 214 Sicilian subjects, and in the percentages of T and natural killer (NK) cells in a subcohort of donors. We compared these results with the immunophenotype of the oldest living Italian supercentenarian (aged 111 years). The results were also sorted by gender. The correlation between number/percentage of cells and age in all ind…
Centenarians: An excellent example of resilience for successful ageing.
2020
Centenarians are remarkable not only because of their prolonged life, but also because they compress morbidity until the very last moments of their lives, thus being proposed as a model of successful, extraordinary ageing. From the medical viewpoint, centenarians do not escape the physiological decline or the age-related diseases or syndromes (i.e. frailty), but the rate of such processes is slow enough to be counterbalanced by their increased intrinsic capacity to respond to minor stresses of daily life (i.e. resilience). These new concepts are reviewed in this paper. Allostatic stresses lead to a chronic low-grade inflammation that has led to the proposal of the "inflammaging" theory of a…