Definition
Aging theories explain nature of aging as the age-related deterioration of structures and functions of a body owing to the passive accumulation of random errors (stochastic theories of aging) or as the active and nonrandom process (theories of programmed aging).
Overview
In spite of the current progress in deciphering various aspects of aging, including telomere shortening, epigenetic changes, mitochondrial dysfunction, stem cell exhaustion, etc., the central issue – why aging exists and what is its mechanism – remains the greatest unanswered problem of biology.
In the biology of aging, two terms describing age-related changes in animals are widely used: aging and senescence. Sometimes, they are used as synonyms, but here, they will be applied only in the following, fundamentally different meanings. Aging is a process of the age-related progressive decline of functions that begins after complete...
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Olovnikov, A.M. (2019). Aging Theories. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_32-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_32-1
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