Ageing

Healthy ageing: ageing safely.

The population of the developed world is steadily ageing. In the European Union, approximately 22% of persons are over 60 years of age and this is projected to increase to more than 27% by the year 2020. This has major implications for health care resources and the productive workforce. Ageing is accompanied by a decline in the physiological reserve of all organ systems, compromising homeostasi...

Ageing and vascular ageing.

There is an age related decline in various physiological processes. Vascular ageing is associated with changes in the mechanical and the structural properties of the vascular wall, which leads to the loss of arterial elasticity and reduced arterial compliance. Arterial compliance can be measured by different parameters like pulse wave velocity, augmentation index, and systemic arterial complian...

Immunity & Ageing

Background: Ageing affects many components of the immune system, including innate immune cells like monocytes. They are important in the early response to pathogens and for their role to differentiate into macrophages and dendritic cells. Recent studies have revealed significant age-related changes in genomic DNA methylation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, however information on epigenet...

Ageing thesis

The actual time of death or total longevity of an organism is determined either by the innate rate of physiological decline or by the rate of ageing and also by the severity of the extrinsic challenges destabilizing its homeostatic balance. Ageing is a highly complex phenomenon whose proper understanding involves the elucidation of many processes besides those involved in debilitation during th...

Ageing Perspectives