Double strand breaks may be a missing link between entropy and aging.
It has been previously suggested that an increase in entropy production leads to aging. However, the mechanisms linking increased entropy production in living mass to aging are currently unclear. Even though entropy cannot be easily associated with any specific molecular damage, the increase of entropy in structural mass may be connected with heat stress, which is known to generate double strand breaks. Double strand breaks, which are in turn known to play an important role in process of aging, are thus connected to both aging and an increase of entropy. In view of these associations, we propose a new model where the increase of entropy leads to the formation of double strand breaks, resulting in an aging phenotype. This not only offers a new perspective on aging research and facilitates experimental validation, but could also serve as a useful explanatory tool.
Department of Pathological Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, Building A18, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic. Electronic address: peter.lenart@mail.muni.cz.
Peter
P
Lenart
Department of Pathological Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, Building A18, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic; Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, Building A29, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic.
Julie
J
Bienertová-Vašků
D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism*; D053903:DNA Breaks, Double-Stranded; D019277:Entropy; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological
Aging; Chromatin; DNA damage; Double strand breaks; Entropy