Overview
The mechanisms of aging in our species, or in closely related species, are interpreted in two completely different ways. As the two explanations are opposite and incompatible, they are presented in two separate sections of this entry, leaving to the reader any judgment about a conclusion.
Mechanisms of Aging According to Non-programmed (Nonadaptive) Aging Theories
These theories explain aging as caused by a progressive accumulation of several injuries insufficiently opposed by natural selection. In particular aging has been mainly attributed to free radical damages, changes in immunological functions, telomere shortening, and the presence of senescence genes in the DNA (da Costa et al. 2016; Davinelli et al. 2019). In fact, with advancing age, humans are continuously exposed to endogenous and environment antigens, which lead to a remodeling of both innate and acquired...
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Corbi, G., Ferrara, N. (2019). Aging Mechanisms. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_31-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_31-1
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