Aging at the Molecular Level

During the last 40 years, the study of the biological basis of aging has progressed tremendously, and it has now become an independent and respectable field of study and research. The essential cause of aging is molecular damage that slowly overwhelms cellular and organismic defense, repair and maintenance systems. In recent years, a wealth of highly sophisticated research has transformed this idea from a credible hypothesis not only to a major theory, but essentially to accepted knowledge. Aging at the Molecular Level examines the key elements in this transformation.
Bringing together contributions from an international team of authors, this volume will be of interest to graduates and postgraduates in the fields of medicine and nursing, researchers of different aspects of biogerontology and those in the pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical, nutraceutical and health-care industry.

1. Free radical production and antioxidant defense: a primer.- 2. Oxidative DNA damage and repair — implications for aging.- 3. Oxidative damage to proteins.- 4. Ageing rate, mitochondrial free radical production and constitutive sensitivity to lipid peroxidation: insights from comparative studies.- 5. Genomic instability in human premature aging.- 6. Oxidative damage, somatic mutations and cellular aging.- 7. Mitochondria and aging.- 8. Biological clocks in the aging cell.- 9. Telomeric damage in aging.- 10. Probing the in vivo relevance of oxidative stress in aging using knockout and transgenic mice.- 11. Non-oxidative modification of DNA and proteins.- 12. Transcriptional and translational dysregulation during aging.- 13. Metabolic regulation of gene silencing and life span.- 14. The proteasome in aging.- 15. Aging and lysosomal degradation of cellular constituents.