The Influence of Chronic Inflammation on the Hallmarks of Aging

Chronic inflammation is a feature of aging, a continual activation of the immune response without any triggering injury or infection. Many different mechanisms contribute to this state of unresolved inflammatory signaling: the accumulation of senescent cells and the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP); mitochondrial dysfunction leading to mislocalized mitochondrial DNA that triggers an innate immune reaction; signaling from visceral fat cells in those who are overweight; changes in the gut microbiome and intestinal barrier that allow microbes and microbial metabolites to provoke the immune system; and so on and so forth. Inflammatory signaling is vital in the short term, necessary for the immune response to function correctly in the context of regeneration from injury, destruction of pathogens, and destruction of malfunctioning cells. When sustained for the long term, however, inflammatory signaling becomes increasingly disruptive to cell and tissue function. A meaningful fraction of degenerative aging results from chronic inflammation; research suggests that all of the common fatal age-related conditions have a strong inflammatory component to their pathologies. Chronic inflammation and the hallmarks of aging Recently, the hallmarks of aging were updated to include dysbiosis, disabled macroautophagy, and chronic inflammation. In particular, the low-grade chronic inflammation during aging, without overt infection, is defined as "inflammagin...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs