Aging: a non-regulated process.
Aging is a non-regulated process. This perspective on aging derives primarily from the observation that all known regulated systems are subjected to aberration, whereas aging, and its ultimate phase death, is not. Moreover, within the same species, the cause of death of an individual varies widely, which again bespeaks against a regulatory mechanism. Rejuvenation, the antidote to aging and the essence of immortality, is exercised in the lowest animals, such as protozoa, but is suppressed in the developed animal, including man, where aging is irreversible and death is inevitable. Also introduced is the exhaustion theory for the process of aging which predicts that with advancing age there occur a progressive accumulation of metabolic-derived insults which act to gradually exhaust (age) the biological systems, and consequently cause the animal's death.
Segal
J
J
Hubert H. Humphrey Center for Experimental Medicine and Cancer Research, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001481:Basal Metabolism; D001831:Body Temperature; D002470:Cell Survival; D004032:Diet; D006128:Growth; D006801:Humans; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000254:growth & development; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008322:Mammals / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological