Definition
Half a century ago, Harman in the USA (Harman 1956) followed by Emanuel in Russia (Emanuel 1975) developed the idea that aging is a result of damage to biopolymers (DNA, primarily) through the reactive oxygen species (ROS). Since then, many facts have been found in favor of the validity of this postulate, and the impression was that the mitochondrial DNA serves as one of the ROS targets during aging (for reviews, see Harman 1972; Skulachev 2003; Skulachev et al. 2013). The mitochondrial ROS aging theory postulates that mitochondrial ROS, produced during normal metabolism as by-products, cause oxidative damage. The accumulation of this oxidative damage is one of the main driving forces in the biological aging process.
Overview and Key Findings
This provision has been directly confirmed in the elegant experiments conducted in the laboratories of H. Zassenhaus, N.G....
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Skulachev, V.P., Lyamzaev, K.G. (2019). Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen Species Aging Theory. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_47-1
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