Aging is a biological process characterized by time-dependent functional declines that have been associated with a number of physical and mental conditions known to reduce healthspan, including energetic metabolism, chronic inflammation, cardiovascular dysfunction and cardiovascular diseases as well as neuronal dysfunction (1). At NIA, the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of aging (BLSA) is aimed at characterizing physical, functional and cognitive changes that occur with aging independent of disease development as well as the mechanisms by which disease can affect the emergence and progression of age-related phenotypes. To date, the evidence is insufficient to tell whether mice can be used as a model organism that fully recapitulates the same physiological changes that occur in human aging. Establishing such equivalence is important to decide whether research conducted in mouse is translatable to human aging (2). Thus, we are performing an extensive longitudinal study in mice to identify those biomarkers that change with aging both in mice and in humans and those that in both organisms predict disease onset and survival.
| Kane, Alice E; Huizer-Pajkos, Aniko; Mach, John et al. (2017) A Comparison of Two Mouse Frailty Assessment Tools. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 72:904-909 |
| Wahl, Devin; Coogan, Sean Cp; Solon-Biet, Samantha M et al. (2017) Cognitive and behavioral evaluation of nutritional interventions in rodent models of brain aging and dementia. Clin Interv Aging 12:1419-1428 |
| Richardson, Arlan; Fischer, Kathleen E; Speakman, John R et al. (2016) Measures of Healthspan as Indices of Aging in Mice-A Recommendation. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 71:427-30 |
