title: Gompertz law and aging as exclusion effects.
abstract: The exponential increase with age in mortality rate, the Gompertz law, indicates that the decrease in vitality and viability linked to aging depends on phenomena with exponential or logarithmic dynamics. Gompertz slope (alpha) is assumed to be a measure of aging rate, provided the studied cohort is homogeneous and in a supporting environment. The law provides no clue about the cause of aging, but may be formally correlated with various physical or mathematical functions. A possible correlation between the Ogston-Laurent exclusion equation and human aging is examined. An increase with age of an inert cross-linked insoluble protein network is assumed to result in a logarithmic decrease in water volume available to colloidal macromolecules. In this model, alpha is assumed to be a measure of the rate of accumulation of the polypeptide network.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Biomedical Center, University of Uppsala, Box 582, 75123 Uppsala, Sweden. anund.hallen@swipnet.se
authors.forename: Anund
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hallén
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009026:Mortality; D010455:Peptides / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides