Biomarkers of aging: from primitive organisms to humans

• Published in: The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2004-06, Vol.59 (6), p.B560-B567
• Main Authors: Butler, Robert N, Sprott, Richard, Warner, Huber, Bland, Jeffrey, Feuers, Richie, Forster, Michael, Fillit, Howard, Harman, S Mitchell, Hewitt, Michael, Hyman, Mark, Johnson, Kathleen, Kligman, Evan, McClearn, Gerald, Nelson, James, Richardson, Arlan, Sonntag, William, Weindruch, Richard, Wolf, Norman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aging; Aging - physiology; Animals; Biomarkers - analysis; Cellular biology; Grants; Humans; Pathology; Policy Making; Public interest; Scientists
• ISSN: 1079-5006; 1758-535X

Leading biologists and clinicians interested in aging convened to discuss biomarkers of aging. The goals were to come to a consensus, construct an agenda for future research, and make appropriate recommendations to policy makers and the public-at-large. While there was not total agreement on all issues, they addressed a number of questions, among them whether biomarkers can be identified and used to measure the physiological age of any individual within a population, given emerging information about aging and new technological advances. The hurdles to establishing informative biomarkers include the biological variation between individuals that makes generalizations difficult; the overlapping of aging and disease processes; uncertainty regarding benign versus pathogenic age-related changes; the point at which a process begins to do damage to the organism, and, if so, when does it occur; and when to distinguish critical damage from noncritical damage. Finally, and significantly, it is difficult to obtain funding for this research.