Role of Physiological Resilience in Aging: Challenges and Opportunities

Lifespan and healthspan remain a cornerstone of documenting efficacy in aging research. However, it is becoming increasingly appreciated that housing rodents in conventional, unprovoked conditions, rather than exposed to the same variety of stressors normally encountered by free-living humans, has limited our understanding of how these strategies can be translated. Resilience can be defined as the ability of an organism to respond to a physical challenge or stress and return to homeostasis. Indeed, physiologic resilience is recognized to decline with age from a weakening of interactions among multiple physiologic regulatory functions. Here, we have attempted to optimize stress assays as a means of measuring physiologic resilience in mice. Our data demonstrate that these assays can readily detect age-related deficits in recovery, are amendable to geroprotector strategies, including rapamycin, while acute exposure to a stress can accelerate aging and mortality, thereby serving as a potentially useful paradigm for testing age-delaying interventions.

The prevalence of inorganic mercury in human cells increases during aging but decreases in the very old

Successful aging is likely to involve both genetic and environmental factors, but environmental toxicants that accelerate aging are not known. Human exposure to mercury is common, and mercury has genotoxic, autoimmune, and free radical effects which could contribute to age-related disorders. The presence of inorganic mercury was therefore assessed in the organs of 170 people aged 1–104 years to determine the prevalence of mercury in human tissues at different ages. Mercury was found commonly in cells of the brain, kidney, thyroid, anterior pituitary, adrenal medulla and pancreas. The prevalence of mercury in these organs increased during aging but decreased in people aged over 80 years. People with mercury in one organ usually also had mercury in several others. In conclusion, the prevalence of inorganic mercury in human organs increases with age. The relative lack of tissue mercury in the very old could account for the flattened mortality rate and reduced incidence of cancer in this advanced age group. Since mercury may accelerate aging, efforts to reduce atmospheric mercury pollution could improve the chances of future successful aging.

Analysis of Mechanical Properties and Mechanism of Natural Rubber Waterstop after Aging in Low-Temperature Environment

In order to elucidate the aging performance and aging mechanism of a rubber waterstop in low-temperature environments, the rubber waterstops were placed in the freezing test chamber to accelerate aging, and then we tested its tensile strength, elongation, tear strength, compression permanent deformation and hardness at different times. Additionally, the damaged specimens were tested by scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry. The results showed that with the growth of aging time, the mechanical properties of the rubber waterstop are reduced. At the same time, many protrusions appeared on the surface of the rubber waterstop, the C element gradually decreased, and the O element gradually increased. During the period of 72–90 days, the content of the C element in the low-temperature air environment significantly decreased compared with that in low-temperature water, while the content of O element increased significantly.

Decline in Female Fertility After 40 Years

Important factor related to the conception possibility is women age. The decline in fertility with aging is proven and evident in literature. Infertility is increasing and many couples seek help in advanced techniques such as IVF (in vitro fertilization) in order to overcome the problem caused by aging, but the quality of the oocytes is a significant limiting factor. With the aging the quantity and quality of oocytes decreases, such as the quality of the embryo after fertilization. The accelerated rhythm of life, liberty and women inclusion in all kinds of professions brought many benefits to women, but also increasingly postponing births. Each person is unique individual, and can be more or less fertile compared to the average at same age. Unfortunately, some women has a rapid decline in fertility - accelerate aging, very early, already in the early twenties and when testing them with different methods and exams, the result is very low number of oocytes, low value of anti-Müllerian hormone and also very poor quality of these oocytes, or low ovarian reserve. The problem is that when you have accelerate aging, even IVF techniques can not be of great help in achieving pregnancy. The pregnancy rate (17,65%) and the childbirth rate (5,88%) with the patients older than 40 is very low, although comparable to the data from the scientific literature and speaks in favour of the fact that the success of assisted reproductive techniques is very modest with women older than 44.