Associations Between the Lipidome and Epigenetic Aging

The body contains hundreds of different types of lipid molecules, participating in cellular metabolism in ways that are just as complex and relevant to health as the activities of other biomolecules. In the context of aging, this broad range of lipids are perhaps understudied in comparison to levels and roles of proteins and patterns of gene expression. The situation is much the same, however: researchers can readily and cost-effectively amass a vast amount of data, but the analysis of this data lags far behind the accumulation of ever more and ever larger omics databases. It is ever unclear as to whether any particular association is useful or relevant. Is it only a consequence of meaningful processes, a side-effect, something that causes no further significant issues, or does it actually cause pathology, directly or indirection, to a level that makes it worth trying to intervene? When one has to ask that question of hundreds or thousands of different biomolecules, it begins to look more sensible to focus on known root causes of aging and intervene there. First intervene and evaluate the outcome, rather than first working to increase understanding of the fine details of aging. Doing both is of course the right choice given unlimited time and funding, but that is a luxury that none of us has, least of all scientific organizations. Further, when researchers intervene by, say, clearing senescent cells or improving mitochondrial function, and thereby improve health and ex...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs