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Perspectives in Biogerontology

  • Chapter
Clinical Pharmacology in the Aged / Klinische Pharmakologie im Alter

Part of the book series: Methods in Clinical Pharmacology ((MECLPH,volume 6))

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Summary

After reaching sexual maturity, individual members of a species accumulate physiological decrements that lead to an increase in their likelihood of dying. This decline in function is called aging. For man, the likelihood of dying doubles every seven years beyond the age of 30.

The triumphs of modern medicine have not lengthened the human lifespan. Medical successes merely have permitted more people to reach what appears to be a fixed upper age limit. Life expectation has increased but life span has not. In many developed countries, one can now reasonably expect to become old, which is a very new phenomenon.

If the two leading causes of death in developed countries were to be eliminated (cardiovascular diseases and cancer), about 14 years of additional life expectation would occur for all age groups. Resolving all other causes of death would add an additional 2 years of life expectation. Thus if all causes of premature death were to be eliminated, all humans would live to be about 100 years of age. They would then die as the result of normal losses in physiological function which previously increased their vulnerability to an earlier death caused by disease or accidents. The diseases of old age are simply superimposed on the normal physiological decrements that occur after sexual maturation.

Studies on isolated human cells grown in laboratory cultures indicate that normal cells have a limited capacity to divide and to function. They have a chronometer that limits their replicative and functional capacity. Cells grown in culture from older donors have a reduced capacity to divide and function when compared to cells grown from younger donors. Before cells die in culture they reveal several hundred changes, many of which are similar to those changes that occur in the intact older human.

Current evidence leads to the belief that age changes are substantially due to changes that occur in the genetic machinery of individual cells. The changes apparently are induced by the same genetic program that operates throughout the life of the individual.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Gerontological Studies, University of Florida, 3357 Turlington Hall, 32611, Gainesville, Florida, USA

    L. Hayflick

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  1. L. Hayflick
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Pharmacology, Federal Republic of Germany

    Norbert Rietbrock (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Clinical Pharmacology, University Clinic, Frankfurt am Main, Federal Republic of Germany

    Barry G. Woodcock (Senior Lecturer) (Senior Lecturer)

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© 1987 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

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Hayflick, L. (1987). Perspectives in Biogerontology. In: Rietbrock, N., Woodcock, B.G. (eds) Clinical Pharmacology in the Aged / Klinische Pharmakologie im Alter. Methods in Clinical Pharmacology, vol 6. Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-89728-2_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-89728-2_2

  • Publisher Name: Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-528-07935-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-322-89728-2

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