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Complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions

There have long been suggestions that aging is tightly linked to the complex dynamics of the physiological systems that maintain homeostasis, and in particular to dysregulation of regulatory networks of molecules. This review synthesizes recent work that is starting to provide evidence for the impor...

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Autor principal: Cohen, Alan A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4723638/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25991473
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10522-015-9584-x
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author Cohen, Alan A.
author_facet Cohen, Alan A.
author_sort Cohen, Alan A.
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description There have long been suggestions that aging is tightly linked to the complex dynamics of the physiological systems that maintain homeostasis, and in particular to dysregulation of regulatory networks of molecules. This review synthesizes recent work that is starting to provide evidence for the importance of such complex systems dynamics in aging. There is now clear evidence that physiological dysregulation—the gradual breakdown in the capacity of complex regulatory networks to maintain homeostasis—is an emergent property of these regulatory networks, and that it plays an important role in aging. It can be measured simply using small numbers of biomarkers. Additionally, there are indications of the importance during aging of emergent physiological processes, functional processes that cannot be easily understood through clear metabolic pathways, but can nonetheless be precisely quantified and studied. The overall role of such complex systems dynamics in aging remains an important open question, and to understand it future studies will need to distinguish and integrate related aspects of aging research, including multi-factorial theories of aging, systems biology, bioinformatics, network approaches, robustness, and loss of complexity.
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spelling pubmed-47236382016-02-02 Complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions Cohen, Alan A. Biogerontology Research Article There have long been suggestions that aging is tightly linked to the complex dynamics of the physiological systems that maintain homeostasis, and in particular to dysregulation of regulatory networks of molecules. This review synthesizes recent work that is starting to provide evidence for the importance of such complex systems dynamics in aging. There is now clear evidence that physiological dysregulation—the gradual breakdown in the capacity of complex regulatory networks to maintain homeostasis—is an emergent property of these regulatory networks, and that it plays an important role in aging. It can be measured simply using small numbers of biomarkers. Additionally, there are indications of the importance during aging of emergent physiological processes, functional processes that cannot be easily understood through clear metabolic pathways, but can nonetheless be precisely quantified and studied. The overall role of such complex systems dynamics in aging remains an important open question, and to understand it future studies will need to distinguish and integrate related aspects of aging research, including multi-factorial theories of aging, systems biology, bioinformatics, network approaches, robustness, and loss of complexity. Springer Netherlands 2015-05-20 2016 /pmc/articles/PMC4723638/ /pubmed/25991473 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10522-015-9584-x Text en © The Author(s) 2015 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Research Article
Cohen, Alan A.
Complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions
title Complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions
title_full Complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions
title_fullStr Complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions
title_full_unstemmed Complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions
title_short Complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions
title_sort complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4723638/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25991473
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10522-015-9584-x
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