Decrease in Human Aging Rate Since the Middle of the 20th Century.

The plot of the mortality rate minus the constant A of the Gompertz-Makeham equation and the plot of the mortality intensity increment d(m) reflect the actual rate of biological aging. It was shown that since the middle of the 20th century there has been a slowdown in aging for all the countries of the world that were studied (for available periods in the history), in all parameters: R0 and k coefficients of the Gompertz equation, mortality intensity increment d(m) and maximum life span. The slowdown in the aging rate of continues to the present. The probable cause is a significant improvement in medical and social care and quality of life since the mid-20th century and the possible influence of the therapy of chronic diseases on the aging processes.

Effect of Alpha-Fetoprotein on Lifespan of Old Mice.

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is one of the best-known embryo-specific proteins. It is used to diagnose fetal abnormalities and tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and liver. AFP has pronounced immunotropic and detoxifying effect and a direct apoptotic effect on tumor cells. The treatment of mice at the oldest age in our experiments with AFP dramatically increased the survival and markedly increased the relative weight of immunotropic organs, apparently due to the general effect of AFP in improving functions of tissues and detoxifying actions. It also improved appearance and the relative weight of internal organs with a reduced age of autoaggression.

Early Thymus Involution--Manifestation of an Aging Program or a Program of Development?

"I see no physical reason why it should not have been possible for life to construct ageless individuals", said Carl von Weizsacker in 1979 at the Conference on DNA. An obvious biological reason for senescence may be the action of a built-in aging program. Many gerontologists believe that early thymic involution is an argument in favor of the existence of such a program. On the other hand, this involution may be a result of the program of development rather than aging. According to the concepts of noninfectious immunology, the immune system of vertebrates is also designed for immune surveillance over initial tumor development and for tissue-specific regulation of cell proliferation both in ontogenesis and during physiological and reparative regeneration of organs and tissues. Natural anti-tissue autoantibodies are the main effectors of such regulation. Therefore, the number of inherited genes of the variable part of immunoglobulin (V-genes) is not less than the number of all proliferative-competent cell types (~100). For the same reason, the maximal rate of growth, which is usually observed in the prepubertal period, coincides with the maximal thymus index and the maximal number of immunoglobulin-secreting cells as well as the minimal force of mortality during ontogeny. Thus, the circa-pubertal beginning of thymic involution is probably caused by the programmed deceleration of the growth rate in ontogeny, and not by the early manifestation of an aging program. This approach allows us to understand the mechanism of the well-known antitumor effect of the regeneration process of the organ homologous to the tumor, and hence we can try to use it in practical oncology.

[Biological Age as a Method for Systematic Assessment of Ontogenetic Changes in the State of an Organism].

Aging is a common feature of living and nonliving systems as a disturbance of the structure of the system accumulating with age. The only cause of aging of a living system, which is capable of renewal, is the insufficiency of renewal. The latter manifests itself as two global mechanisms of aging: the genetically determined nonrenewal of a number of structures that can only die with age (stochastic aging) and the regulatory reduction in the rate of self-renewal of living structures. The regulatory reduction in cellular self-renewal (cell growth and division) is most important. At the same chronological age, the degree of aging of the organism in general, as well as individual organs, cells, and systems of the organism, may be different, reflecting the concept of biological age (BA)--an indicator of the level of development, changes, or deterioration of a structure or function of an element of the organism, a functional system, or the organism as a whole. It is expressed in units oftime by relating the values of biomarkers defining the processes of aging with the standard average statistical dependences of changes in these biomarkers with the chronological age. The concept of BA is directly related to the concept of viability of the organism, which is determined by the sum (integral) of viabilities of its parts (in practice, the residual functional resource). For quantitative characterization of aging in general, the index of integrated biological age is used. To give a detailed characterization, the partial biological ages are used, which reflect the aging of different systems of the organism, as well as a number of indices reflecting its functional and psychological possibilities. The contribution of pathological processes to BA is also taken into account. In addition, the amount of retained adaptive reserves in the physical and nervous and mental aspects, the risk factors, and the factors of longevity should be determined. For this purpose, it is necessary to take into account the family history (hereditary factors) and the individual history (acquired factors). The use ofthe BA determination method by doctors in clinical practice stimulates the development of preventive medicine, which is important to improve both the individual health and the quality of life. The BA determination method is also the main tool for testing the effectiveness of tools and methods of geroprophylaxis.

[Biological age as an index of human health level, aging and ecological well-being].

Methodology of estimating the integral health and aging level is based on the system index of biological age (BA). The paper introduces the reader to the BA principles and structure, search for meaningful aging biomarkers, useful tests, and applications in present-day biomedicine. The concept of BA is directly linked with the theory of organism vitality. BA biomarkers must provide a detailed picture of the process of aging. Number of biomarkers cannot be large, while their changes with aging must be uniform in every population member and fairly distinct though with moderate interindividual variations. Prognosis of the vital trajectory requires estimation of risk factors, i.e. hereditary and acquired factors that affect lifespan, and also longevity factors, i.e. genetic and environmental factors crucial for clinical medicine and gerontological prophylaxis properly. At present, BA gains wide recognition in clinical and preventive medicine, physiology and biology as a method to evaluate the general state of health, ecological well-being, adaptation to extreme factors, as well as the rate and degree of organism aging.

[Enhancement of electrocardiogram information capability by identification of the ECG spectrum phases].

The authors discuss feasibility to extract additional information about electrical activity of the heart from the ECG magnitude and phase spectrum. Fifty digitized ECG fragments from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database and PhysioBank ECG repository data were analyzed. It was shown that ECG phase harmonics contains valuable information about the ECG signal that can be used eventually for the development of advanced ECG analysis tools.

[The system theory of aging: methodological principles, basic tenets and applications].

The paper deals with the system theory of aging constructed on the basis of present-day scientific methodology--the system approach. The fundamental cause for aging is discrete existence of individual life forms, i.e. living organisms which, from the thermodynamic point of view, are not completely open systems. The primary aging process (build-up of chaos and system disintegration of aging organism) obeys the second law of thermodynamics or the law of entropy increase in individual partly open systems. In living organisms the law is exhibited as synergy of four main aging mechanisms: system "pollution" of organism, loss of non-regenerative elements, accumulation of damages and deformations, generation of variability on all levels, and negative changes in regulation processes and consequent degradation of the organism systematic character. These are the general aging mechanisms; however, the regulatory mechanisms may be important equally for organism aging and search for ways to prolong active life.

[Prognosis of individual survival in animals with fatal and non-fatal tumors]. / Prognozirovanie individual'noi prodolzhitel'nosti zhizni pri razvitii fatal'nykh i nefatal'nykh opukholei.

Cohort analysis of life span in a uniform LIO rat population established a correlation between death cause and age-related death force parameters. It also demonstrated certain sex-related differences involved. The life span of males which had tumors at the time of death, whatever the real cause of death, was significantly longer than that in tumor-free animals. The life span of tumor-free females and those which died from cancer was shorter while the longest-surviving group bore non-fatal tumors. It is suggested that prognosis of individual survival be based on a combination of traditional procedures of mathematical evaluation of population mortality rates and complex assessment of individual health. This approach envisages formation of cohorts characterized by maximum differences in aging dynamics.