Robert, Ladislas. "Aging - From Basic Research, Clinical Gerontology and "Anti-Aging" Medicine." Pathologie Biologie 51 (2003): 541-42.
Abstract: In this short editorial, one of the 51 scientists who signed and endorsed Olshanky, Hayflick, and Carnes' position statement on anti-aging medicine shifts his opinion after seeing the high attendence and ample media coverage at the first anti-aging conference in France in February 2003. It now seems to him that, contrary to the express goal of the position statement, there is no good remedy against the growing trend of aging people to consult with such "anti-aging" practitioners. The wiser thing to do would be to eliminate the gap of communication between scientists and physicians, as advocated in the Juenst et al Science article, and a more tolerant attitude.
Alcedo, Joy, and Cynthia Kenyon. "Regulation of C. Elegans Longevity by Specific Gustatory and Olfactory Neurons." Neuron 41 (2004): 45-55.
Abstract: Specific subsets of sensory neurons inhibit longevity, while others promote longevity, most likely by influencing the insulin/IGF-signalling. Olfactory neurons also influence life span through another, distinct pathway involving reproduction. A chemosensory receptor expressed in some of these sensory neurons inhbit longevity. The long-lived sensory impaired worms were not thin or calorie-restricted, so the effect of the gustatory or olfactory neurons do not influence life spanc by affecting food consumption. These indicate that the C elegans life span is regulated by environmental cues that are perceived and integrated ina complex way by specific chemosensory neurons. Sensory control of life span may also occur in other organisms.
Ben-Porath, Ittai, and Robert A. Weinberg. "When Cells Get Stressed: an Integrative View of Cellular Senescence." The Journal of Clinical Investigation 113, no. 1 (2004): 8-13.
Abstract: Little is known about cellular senescence (permanent cell cycle arrest) in vivo; research has focused on the role of cellular senecence as a barrier or limit to extended cell division (via telomere length). This paper instead suggests that cellular senscence should be viewed in terms of its role as a general cellular response program to physiological stresses that do not involve telomeres. Various kinds of stimuli and activate the senescence program, so there does not need to be a distinction betwen replicative and stress-induced senescence.
Brunet-Rossinni, Anja. " Reduced Free-Radical Production and Extreme Longevity in the Little Brown Bat Versus Two Non-Flying Mammels." Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 125 (2004): 11-20.
Abstract: Although bats have a high metabolic rate, they have extended longevity. Comparing a bat (lifespan = 34 years) with two non-flying rodents (2-8 years) tests the predictions of the free radical or oxidative stress theory of aging. Bat mitochondria were found to produce half to a third of hydrogen peroxide per unit oxygen consumed. Thus, bats have efficient mitochondrion, meeting cellular energy needs with low risk of oxidative damage. The findings lend support to the free radical theoyr of aging at least as a partial explanation for the differences in species lifespan.
Garbe, E., and S. Suissa. "Hormone Replacement Therapy and Acute Coronary Outcomes: Methodological Issues Between Randomized and Observational Studies." Human Reproduction 19, no. 1 (2004): 8-13.
Abstract: Discusses possible methodological reasons for the discrepancies between the observational studies showing a protective effect of HRT and the large-scale Women's Health Initiative study, which reported the opposed effect (increased risk of heart disease). The increase in risk in the WHI study may be due to detection bias as a result of substantial unblinding, despite initial randomization. In contrast, the postive effects in the observational studies may have been exaggerated by healthy user bias, compliance bias (compliance as a surrogate parameter for healther lifestyle) and the use of never-users as the control group.
Jett, Kathleen F. "The Meaning of Aging and the Celebration of Years Among Rural African-American Women." Geriatric Nursing 24, no. 5 (2003): 290-320.
Abstract: Based on an ethnography of elderly African-American women in rural Florida, the women were found to define aging both formally (in years) and through functionality. Formal aging, the accumulation of years was considered an honor and a gift from God. Functional aging ("wore out" old) was demonstrated by the loss of the ability to walk or care for oneself independently, and could be brought on by inactivity or a defeatist attitude. Keeping active was an important way to maintain youth and independence. Aging was not identified with retirement or social security benefits, but was associated with status and special meaning that results from a personal relationship with God.
Miah, Andy. "Be Very Afraid: Cyborg Athletes, Transhuman Ideals & Postmodernity." The Journal of Evolution and Technology 13, no. 2 (2003).
Abstract: The validity of transhumanism as a philosophical framework is best demonstrated in the realm of the elite competitive sports, rather than medicine. Medical technology, by normalizing technology and using the rubric of therapy rather than enhancement, does not fully support transhuman ideals - it has emphasized restoration rather than creating new levels of human capacity. Elite athletes, on the other hand, seem already posthuman, since they explicitly aim, and are honored for, transcending physical human limits. The ethical arguments against and attempts to stem doping in sports are not very persuasive., since athletes already already use sophisticated technologies to acheive such ends. Thus, sports reflects a context in which the human and posthuman are blurring, demonstrating how it might be possible for humans to become post human, while believing that they remain fundamentally human.
Pelicci, Pier Giuseppe. "Do Tumor-Suppressive Mechanisms Contribute to Organism Aging by Inducing Stem Cell Senescence?" The Journal of Clinical Investigation 113, no. 1 (2004): 4-7.
Abstract: Stemcells ensure tissue and organism homeostasis. Although these cells are potentially immortal, their lifespan is restrained by signaling pathways that are activated by DNA damage and lead to senescence or apoptosis. Execution of these checkpoint porgrams might lead to stem cell depletion and organism aging while their inactivation contributes to tumor formation
Sarkisian, Catherine A., Mary H. Lee-Henderson, and Carol M. Mangione. "Do Depressed Older Adults Who Attribute Depression to "Old Age" Believe It Is Important to Seek Care?" J Gen Intern Med 18 (2003): 1001-5.
Abstract: Among depressed older adults, those who attributed depression to aging were four times more likely to believe that it was not important to discuss feeling depressed with a doctor than those who attributed depression to illness. Thus, associating depression to old age may be an important barrier to health-seeking.
Seale, Clive, and Sjaak van der Geest. "Good and Bad Death: Introduction." Social Science and Medicine 58 (2004): 883-85.
Abstract: This is the introduction and review of included articles for an issue that focused on cross-cultural variability in the construction of different forms of dying as either "good" or "bad". Conceptions of whawt make a death "good" are not static; make a death good or bad instead is an active process in which both dying people and those around them participate. Two papers demonstrate how bad deaths in two different places were regarded as social disruptive (violent, unexpected), while good deaths occurred at the end of a long and fulfilled life. Other studies, in high-income societies, found that control over the timing and manner of death was increasingly important to the conception of a good death. The media also plays an important part in the promulgation of cultural scripts for dying. Two historical articles demonstrate that "good" deaths vary over time; while the Greeks and Romans valued self-controlled, heroic deaths, Biblical Israelites did not.
The papters demonstrate how some ideas of a good death are similar across time and space (after a long, successful life, at home, without pain, and with some control), while some of the most telling differences in views about death occur not between cultures but within cultures (differences of religion, political interests, age differences, and economic differences).
Simon, Bart. "Toward a Critique of Posthuman Futures." Cultural Critique 53 (2003): 1-8.
Abstract: Introduces this issue of Cultural Critique, which several authors respond to Fukuyama's "Our Posthuman Future" to develop an alternative framework for addressing the discourse and practice of posthuman future without resurrecting human nature or blindly subscribing to postmodern idealogies of infinitely malleable life. At issue is the question of what it means to be human; liberal humanism envisions man as rational and autonomous, while the postmodern subject is envisioned as unstable and hybridized. But the postmodern ideal seems be turning into reality with the advent of biotechnology, and popular posthumanism and theoretical postmodernism increasingly parallel each other.
Tate, Robert B., Leedine Lah, and T. Edward Cuddy. "Definition of Successful Aging by Elderly Canadian Males: The Manitoba Follow-Up Study." The Gerontologist 43, no. 5 (2003): 735-44.
Abstract: Although the term "successful aging" is commonly used, its definition is unclear and it is not understood how the term is used among the elderly themselves. Elderly men were asked for their definition of successful aging, with the definitions sorted into themes. While 83% reported that they felt they had successful aged, the most common theme was health (good physical health, less pain etc) at 30%, followed by satisfaction (happiness, lack of worries), activity (keeping busy), a positive outlook, and family. Because the components of successful aging were often subjective rather than always linked to measurable qualities, the term should be seen as a broader topic than it has been by the research community.
Tu, Meng-Ping, and Marc Tatar. "Juvenile Diet Restriction and the Aging and Reproduction of Adult Drosophila Melanogaster." Aging Cell 2 (2003): 327-33.
Abstract: Diet manipulation in larvae (as opposed to adult flies) did not change aging as measured by mortality, but it did result in a 64% decrease in reproduction. Nutritional conditions (yeast deprivation) during development thus can affect adult size and reproduction, but not necessarily life span. Since diet restriction in adult flies are known to retard aging, nutrition appears directly to affect aging through processes acting in the adult.
Wong, Benjamin. "Eugenics From an East Asian Perspective." Mankind Quarterly XLII, no. 3 (2002): 231-62.
Abstract: Argues that because East Asian societies are more collectivistic, pragmatic, and hierarchical than Western cultures, ideals of equality and individual rights are not seen as intrinsic reasons to reject the use of eugenics. Rather, East Asian societies would in fact value eugenics for improving the family or the nation. Coercive eugenics can be applied in the East with more citizen cooperation and less moral indignation or outcry than in the West. Furthermore, in the West, the concept of eugenics is tainted by its association with Nazism, particularly racism and genocide. In viewing the nation as an extension of the family, East Asian societies believe in and are comfortable with racial hierarchies (which are "confirmed" by recent IQ research). They also view modern Christianity, with its emphasis on universality and liberal equality, as contradicting the basis of eugenics. East Asians would be likely to support provision of birth control, liberalization of abortion, parental licensing, preventative incentive programs, a market in "children's stamps" in which higher SES parents could "buy" children, and genetic engineering or "designer babies". He conludes that many of the West's qualities will be maladaptive in the coming global genetic race.
Zhang, Yan Bing, Mary Lee Hummert, and Teri A. Garstka. "Stereotype Traits of Older Adults Generated by Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Chinese Participants." Hallym International Journal of Aging 4, no. 2 (2002): 119-40.
Abstract: There was considerable overlap between stereotype traits of Chinese participants and those from earlier studies of Western participants, but some traits were introduced as unique to Chinese culture, including such as "experienced" "principled" "endless repeating" (while other traits were infrequently reported and are likely to be unique to Western stereotypes). Participants reported more positive age traits than negative ones, supporting the previous studies suggesting that aging is viewed more positively in Chinese cultures.
Zou, Yani, Kyung Jin Jung, Jung Won Kim, and others. "Alteration of Soluble Adhesion Molecules During Aing and Their Modulation by Calorie Restriction." FASEB Journal (2004).
Abstract: Looking at soluble adhesion molecules (sAMs) during aging in rats, this study suggests that altered expressions of sAMs may be due to increased oxidative stress with advanced age. These increases are prevented by caloric restriction through its antioxidative action.
Information provided by:
Roselle Ponsaran
Research Assistant
Department of Bioethics, School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH 44106
(216) 368-5370
email: roselle.ponsaran@case.edu
Feel free to email Roselle (say Bruce Klein sent ya) with a request to be added to her email update list.
