A Set of Recent Papers on Aspects of Cellular Quality Control in Aging

Autophagy is a prominent topic in aging research. This is also the case for other forms of cellular maintenance processes, but autophagy is by far the most studied and understood at this time. Here when I say autophagy I mean macroautophagy. There other other, less well cataloged forms, but it is usually the case that when someone refers to autophagy without qualification, then they are talking about macroautophagy. In this type of autophagy, damaged molecules and cell structures are isolated inside a specially constructed membrane, and that then fuses with one of the cellular recycling system known as lysosomes. A lysosome is packed with molecules capable of dismantling near all biological compounds it is likely to encounter, rendering them into raw materials for reuse. All forms of quality control within cells appear to be quite influential in health and longevity over the long term. Damaged cellular components that linger cause secondary harms, and so the more efficiently they are removed the better the operation of the cell. Then multiply that by all the cells in a tissue. Unfortunately, cellular processes of repair and maintenance appear to succumb to forms of damage as the years pass. In the case of autophagy, one problem is caused by the accumulation of metabolic waste products that the lysosome is not equipped to handle. Lysosomes become bloated and unable to perform their normal tasks efficiently. Cells malfunction or die, and the waste products continue to bu...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs