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• Characterizing Inflammaging

  From the open access journal Immunity & Aging: "The term "Inflammaging" has been coined by Claudio Franceschi to explain the now widely accepted phenomenon that ageing is accompanied by a low-grade chronic, systemic up-regulation of the inflammatory response and that the underlining inflammatory changes are also common to most age-associated diseases ... [researchers] postulate that both the ageing process and age-associated diseases are late consequences of evolutionary programming for a pro-inflammatory response mainly selected to resist infections and for a successful response to wound healing in early age, a view that has been discussed in the light of the antagonistic pleiotropy theory. Such a theory on the evolution of aging postulates that senescence is the late deleterious effect of genes that are beneficial in early life. Evolutionary programming of the innate immune system may act via selection on these genetic traits."
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.immunityageing.com/content/3/1/12
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Saturday, December 23, 2006 8:40 AM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Aging, Inflammation

• More On Inflammaging

  "Inflammaging" is a packaging of the present understanding of the way in which chronic inflammation and a failing immune system interact to contribute to degenerative aging. From this paper: "A large part of the aging phenotype, including immunosenescence, is explained by an imbalance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory networks, which results in the low grade chronic pro-inflammatory status we proposed to call inflammaging. Within this perspective, healthy aging and longevity are likely the result not only of a lower propensity to mount inflammatory responses but also of efficient anti-inflammatory networks, which in normal aging fail to fully neutralize the inflammatory processes consequent to the lifelong antigenic burden and exposure to damaging agents. Such a global imbalance can be a major driving force for frailty and common age-related pathologies."
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mad.2006.11.016
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Sunday, November 26, 2006 10:34 AM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Aging, Inflammation

• A Reminder: Obesity and Inflammation

  Medical News Today reminds us of the link between excess fat, inflammation, and earlier onset of age-related disease: "a high fat diet draws inflammatory cells into fat tissue, which prevents the tissue from storing the fats we eat. When the tissue can not store these fats, they end up in the liver and muscle, which in turn causes diabetes and heart disease. ... [fat cells] produce molecules called chemokines, which attract inflammatory white blood cells into fat tissue. Both macrophages and T cells, which play a critical role in the immune system, accumulate in fat tissue, beginning the process that leads to disease." While researchers are talking about a drug-based solution to squash inflammation from fat, there's a better way: lose the fat. Even better, choose a healthy lifestyle that prevents you from collecting it in the first place.
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=56997
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Sunday, November 19, 2006 8:08 AM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Aging, Obesity, Inflammation

• Restoring Hardened Blood Vessels

  Blood vessels harden with age, causing a variety of dangerous conditions related to high blood pressure. This has been linked to advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs); here, EurekAlert reports on a different viewpoint: "The research, which was done in test tubes and animal models, needs to be confirmed in humans before it could form the basis for new therapies. But the fundamental findings reveal an important insight into how blood vessels change with age and lose much of their ability to relax, contract, and facilitate the circulation of blood in the body. ... Basically, we've learned that in older blood vessels, the cellular signaling process is breaking down. The vessels still have the ability to relax much as they did when they were younger, but they are not getting the message ... The laboratory studies were very compelling. We were able to make aging blood vessels behave as if they were young again ... This overall process, the researchers said, is linked to a low-grade, chronic inflammation that occurs with aging, in blood vessels and probably many other metabolic functions."
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/osu-lib110206.php
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Saturday, November 04, 2006 6:13 AM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Aging, Inflammation, Blood vessels

• Inflamm-Aging, Cytokines and Aging

  The "inflammaging" meme is gaining traction as illustrated by this review paper (even if no-one can agree on the spelling). "In this article we summarise present knowledge on the role of pro-inflammatory cytokines on chronic inflammation leading to organismal aging, a phenomenon we proposed to call "inflamm-aging". ... On the whole, despite some controversial results, the available data are in favour of the hypothesis that pro-inflammatory cytokines play an important role in aging and longevity. Further, we present a possible hypothesis to reconcile energetic dysfunction, including mitochondria, and inflamm-aging." From the reliability theory point of view, inflammation is generating unrepaired cellular damage - the more damage, the earlier you'll likely age to death. Accumulated damage is aging. Fortunately, most of us have a great deal of control over the major source of chronic inflammation in our life - our excess body fat.
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cpd/2006/00000012/00000024/art00014
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Sunday, August 27, 2006 9:12 AM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Aging, Inflammation

• Living Well to 100 Conference

  The second Living Well to 100 conference will be held in Boston in November of this year: "We have brought together an outstanding group of experts to explore the theme, 'Is Inflammation Central to Aging?' As with the first Living Well to 100 Conference, we will focus on wellness and how to keep healthy people well for a greater portion of their lives. Among the topics to be addressed include how to identify which individuals may benefit from reducing inflammation, what key molecular targets may be mediating the role of inflammation in specific diseases, and how lifestyle and nutritional factors may modulate inflammation. The discussions will also consider the potential role of inflammation during different stages of the lifecycle."
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.wellnessto100.org/
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Friday, August 11, 2006 4:01 PM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Aging, Longevity, Inflammation