David Gems
Centre for Research on Ageing
Department of Biology
Development and
Ageing
B2010 Biology of Development
Ageing
Demography
Ageing-related
disease
cardiovascular
disease, Alzheimer’s,
cancer, diabetes, etc
Evolution
theory
Biochemistry
Genetics Cell biology
Bioethics
Endocrinology
Comparative
biology
Regenerative
medicine
stem cells
1) Comparative biology: How does ageing and longevity
vary between species? Are there non ageing organisms?
10 questions about ageing
Urticina felina (Dahlia anemone) Non ageing
110 years
59 years
Maximum lifespans in mammals
3 years
Pinus longaeva (Bristlecone pine) ~5000 years
3) Genetics: Are ageing and longevity controlled by the
genome, and if so how?
4) Model organisms: Can aging be suppressed and lifespan
increased?
•Reduced insulin/
IGF-1 signalling
•Caloric restriction
2) Evolutionary biology: How/why does ageing evolve? How
does it contribute to fitness?
Caenorhabditis
elegans
Time (days)
0 25 50 75 100
Genotype Median lifespan
+/+ ~44 days
chico/chico ~65 days
0
Genotype Median lifespan
+/+~ 18.7 months
Igf1r+/- ~24.9 months
Time (months)
12 24 36
%
Survival
Time (days)
100
50
0 15 30 45 60
Genotype Median lifespan
+/+ ~16 days
daf-2/daf-2 ~35 days
Drosophila
melanogaster Mus musculus
6) Cell biology: How does cellular senescence contribute to
ageing and cancer? How are telomeres important?
7) Gerontology: How does ageing give rise to ageing-related
disease?
8) Immunology: Why does the immune system fail in
ageing? How does this impact health in later life?
5) Molecular biology/ biochemistry: What is the basis of
ageing and longevity?
9) What are the prospects for treatments for ageing?
10) What should the aims of ageing research be? Is ageing a
disease?
Future prospect and bioethics
BIOL3017
Biology of Ageing
Year 3, Block 2
Ageing (“aging” U.S.) vs. senescence
Senescence: “The decline of fitness components of an
individual with increasing age, owing to internal
deterioration” Michael Rose
Gerontology: The scientific study of the biological,
psychological, and sociological phenomena associated
with old age and aging
Geriatrics: The branch of medicine that deals with the
diagnosis and treatment of diseases and problems
specific to the aged
Biogerontology: The study of the biology of ageing and
longevity
Ageing: the basics
Demography: The numerical and mathematical analysis of
populations and their distributions
Demographic senescence = population senescence
Survival curves in the US since 1900
Life expectancies as calculated for year (US)
Life expectancy Life expectancy
at birth at age 65
Year Men Women Men Women
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1900 47.9 50.9 11.3 12.0
1930 58.0 61.3 11.8 12.9
1950 65.6 71.1 12.8 15.1
1970 67.1 74.9 13.1 17.1
1980 69.9 77.5 14.0 18.4
1990 71.4 78.3 14.9 18.8
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increase 23.5 27.4 3.6 6.8
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US survival curves
Mean (average) lifespan Median lifespan
50% survival
75%
25%
Mme Jeanne Calment, died 1998, aged 122
Maximum human longevity
Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh, 1888
Evolutionary
theories
Ageing
Mechanistic theories
(traditional gerontology)
Model organism
lifespan genetics
The Why of Ageing
The Evolutionary
Theory
J.B.S. Haldane in
the Haldane
Lecture Theatre
Evolution of Ageing First Understood Through Work at UCL
• Huntington's chorea: a genetic, neurodegenerative
disease caused by a highly penetrant dominant mutation.
• 1941 Haldane: why has natural selection not acted to
remove the Huntington's mutation from populations?
• Average age of onset of Huntington's 35.5 years.
• For much of the evolutionary history of mankind, most
people did not live to be that old.
• The selective pressure to remove the Huntington's
mutation is therefore weak
• Giant conceptual leap... perhaps that is what ageing
is, the result of late-acting deleterious mutations?
Peter Medawar
Nobel Laureate for the
discovery of immune
tolerance
Mutation accumulation theory
Even in a population free of ageing, death will none the less
occur, from extrinsic hazards such as disease, predators and
accidents.
Age
Number
alive
Age
Number
alive
Early acting mutation,
most bearers still alive,
strong force of
natural selection
Late acting mutation,
few bearers still alive,
weak force of
natural selection
• Recurrent, deleterious, GERM LINE mutations occur
• Fewer bearers survive to express later-acting
mutations
• The force of natural selection against them declines
with age
• These mutations can therefore reach a higher
frequency under mutation-selection balance
The Pleiotropy or Trade-off Theory for the Evolution of Ageing
George Williams
American
evolutionary
biologist
• Suppose there are mutations are beneficial in youth,
but at the price of a higher rate of ageing
• More individuals will survive to express the early
benefit than will survive to suffer the higher
rate of ageing
• Mutations like this can therefore be incorporated by
natural selection
Ageing evolves as a side-effect of natural selection in
favour of mutations that cause a benefit during youth
The How of Ageing
Three Mechanistic
Theories
The Rate-of-Living Theory (1928)
Loeb and Northrop (1916, 1917): increasing
temperature reduces Drosophila lifespan
“…the duration of life varies inversely as the rate of
energy expenditure … the length of life depends on the
rate of living”
Raymond Pearl
Coefficient relating lifespan to ambient temperature = 2-3, like that of
chemical reactions
Effect of temperature on
Drosophila lifespan
18˚C
21˚C
27˚C
30˚C
Effect of temperature on metabolic rate and lifespan in Drosophila
Lifetime oxygen consumption constant over physiological temperature range
Miquel et al
1976
The life energy potential (LEP) is constant
The free radical theory of ageing
Denham Harman (1956)
“A free radical is any species capable of
independent existence (hence the term ‘free’) that
contains one or more unpaired electron”
Barry Halliwell & John Gutteridge
X -> e- + X.+
Y + e- -> Y.-
O2 + e- -> O2
.-
Superoxide
Reactive oxygen species (ROS)
Reactive nitrogen species (RNS)
Radicals Non-radicals
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Superoxide, O2
.- Hydrogen peroxide, H2O2
Hydroxyl, OH. Hypochlorous acid, HOCl
Peroxyl, RO2
. Ozone, O3
Alkoxyl, RO. Peroxynitrite, ONOO-
Hydroperoxyl, HO2
.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘Superoxide theory of ageing?’
Oxidative damage theory of ageing
Cellular Theories
The Hayflick Limit (1961)
Pre-1961: “All metazoan cells are potentially
immortal. Ageing not cell autonomous”
Is replicative senescence the cause of ageing?
Leonard Hayflick
Fibroblasts: connective tissue cells, e.g. from skin
•Isolate cells from human tissue, place in culture vessel with
nutrient medium
•Cells divide and form confluent layer on vessel surface
•Discard half the cells, allow remainder to grow to confluency = one
passage
•Continue to passage the cells
•Cell replication slows and stops after 50 ± 10 passages: cells have
reached the Hayflick limit and undergone replicative senescence
Hayflick and Moorhead (1961)
•Isolate mutants with altered rates
of ageing
•Map, clone and sequence genes
concerned
•Identify lifespan-determining
proteins, biochemistry, etc
•Understand ageing?
The Classical Genetic
Approach
C. elegans
A microbiverious terrestrial nematode, ~1.2 mm long
Genome: ~97,000,000 bases; ~19,000 genes
Signs of ageing
•Reduced fertility, feeding, movement
•Increased cuticular wrinking (collagen cross linking)
•Increased protein carbonyl, mitochondrial DNA deletions, lipofuscin
Male (X0)
Hermaphrodite (XX)
The hunt for lifespan mutants
Short lived or long lived?
Michael Klass (1983): First screen for long-lived mutants
Tom Johnson (1988): age-1(hx546) mutation
65% increase in mean lifespan
110% increase in maximum lifespan
Remains youthful for longer
Tom Johnson
Cynthia Kenyon (1993): Mutations in daf-2
greatly increase lifespan
Cynthia
Kenyon
What is a dauer larva?
C. elegans life cycle
•Non-feeding, buccal cavity sealed,
survive on stored food
•Live for up to 70 days
•Non-ageing: post dauer adults have
normal lifespans
Dauer
Adult
L3
•Developmentally arrested alternative
third stage larva
•Forms in response to high population
density (dauer pheromone), high
temperature, low food
THE DAUER LARVA
daf mutations
daf: abnormal in dauer formation
Daf-c: Dauer constitutive
Daf-d: Dauer defective
Genes regulating dauer formation
and life span in C. elegans
age-1
daf-2
Daf-c
daf-16
Daf-d
Dauer formation
Increased lifespan
Longevity
gene!
Gems 2006.ppt
C. elegans lifespan genes
have human homologues!
age-1 Catalytic subunit of phosphatidyl
inositol 3-kinase
daf-2 Insulin or IGF-1 receptor
daf-16 FOXO-class forkhead transcription
factor
age-1
daf-2
Daf-c
daf-16
Daf-d
Dauer formation
Increased lifespan
Gary Ruvkun
The daf-2 pathway
Is the role of insulin-like signalling evolutionarily
conserved (‘public’) or unique to nematodes
(‘private’)?
Gems 2006.ppt
The insulin-like pathway in Drosophila
Does it control ageing?
dFOXO dFOXO
P P P
Increased longevity?
Insulin/IGF-1 signalling modulates ageing
in insects as well as nematodes
Drosophila melanogaster
*Mutations in INR (fly daf-2):
mean female lifespan increased by up
to 85%
*Mutation of chico (insulin receptor
substrate), increases lifespan by up to
48%
Implications
*Wide evolutionary conservation of the role of
insulin/IGF-signalling in the modulation of
ageing: a public mechanism of ageing
chico1
+
Insulin/IGF-1 signalling and
ageing in mammals!
Worms, flies: One insulin/IGF-1 receptor
Mammals: insulin receptor, IGF-1 receptor,
insulin-receptor-like receptor….
Insulin receptor
•Mild reduction of function of IR gene: type 2
(non-insulin dependent) diabetes
Insulin signalling promotes ageing? Unlikely?
Extended longevity in mice lacking the
insulin receptor in adipose tissue
Ron Kahn (2003): fat-specific insulin receptor
knockout (FIRKO) mouse
Protected against age-related obesity
18% increase in mean lifespan in both sexes
(Blüher et al. Science 2003)
IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor 1
Anterior
pituitary
gland
Growth
hormone
(GH)
IGF-1
Cell survival, growth
Puberty, gonadal
function Reduced
adiposity
Liver
The
somatotropic
axis
IGF-1 receptor regulates lifespan and
resistance to oxidative stress in mice
Holzenberger (2002): Mice heterozygous for a deletion of the
IGF-1 receptor gene
Resistant to oxidative stress
Increased mean lifespan (33% females, males not long lived)
(Holzenberger et al. Nature 2002)
BIOL3017
Biology of Ageing
Year 3, Block 2
Gems 2006.ppt
Gems 2006.ppt
Gems 2006.ppt

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Gems 2006.ppt

  • 1. David Gems Centre for Research on Ageing Department of Biology Development and Ageing B2010 Biology of Development
  • 2. Ageing Demography Ageing-related disease cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, etc Evolution theory Biochemistry Genetics Cell biology Bioethics Endocrinology Comparative biology Regenerative medicine stem cells
  • 3. 1) Comparative biology: How does ageing and longevity vary between species? Are there non ageing organisms? 10 questions about ageing Urticina felina (Dahlia anemone) Non ageing 110 years 59 years Maximum lifespans in mammals 3 years Pinus longaeva (Bristlecone pine) ~5000 years
  • 4. 3) Genetics: Are ageing and longevity controlled by the genome, and if so how? 4) Model organisms: Can aging be suppressed and lifespan increased? •Reduced insulin/ IGF-1 signalling •Caloric restriction 2) Evolutionary biology: How/why does ageing evolve? How does it contribute to fitness? Caenorhabditis elegans Time (days) 0 25 50 75 100 Genotype Median lifespan +/+ ~44 days chico/chico ~65 days 0 Genotype Median lifespan +/+~ 18.7 months Igf1r+/- ~24.9 months Time (months) 12 24 36 % Survival Time (days) 100 50 0 15 30 45 60 Genotype Median lifespan +/+ ~16 days daf-2/daf-2 ~35 days Drosophila melanogaster Mus musculus
  • 5. 6) Cell biology: How does cellular senescence contribute to ageing and cancer? How are telomeres important? 7) Gerontology: How does ageing give rise to ageing-related disease? 8) Immunology: Why does the immune system fail in ageing? How does this impact health in later life? 5) Molecular biology/ biochemistry: What is the basis of ageing and longevity?
  • 6. 9) What are the prospects for treatments for ageing? 10) What should the aims of ageing research be? Is ageing a disease? Future prospect and bioethics
  • 8. Ageing (“aging” U.S.) vs. senescence Senescence: “The decline of fitness components of an individual with increasing age, owing to internal deterioration” Michael Rose Gerontology: The scientific study of the biological, psychological, and sociological phenomena associated with old age and aging Geriatrics: The branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and problems specific to the aged Biogerontology: The study of the biology of ageing and longevity Ageing: the basics
  • 9. Demography: The numerical and mathematical analysis of populations and their distributions Demographic senescence = population senescence Survival curves in the US since 1900
  • 10. Life expectancies as calculated for year (US) Life expectancy Life expectancy at birth at age 65 Year Men Women Men Women ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1900 47.9 50.9 11.3 12.0 1930 58.0 61.3 11.8 12.9 1950 65.6 71.1 12.8 15.1 1970 67.1 74.9 13.1 17.1 1980 69.9 77.5 14.0 18.4 1990 71.4 78.3 14.9 18.8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Increase 23.5 27.4 3.6 6.8 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  • 11. US survival curves Mean (average) lifespan Median lifespan 50% survival 75% 25%
  • 12. Mme Jeanne Calment, died 1998, aged 122 Maximum human longevity Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh, 1888
  • 14. The Why of Ageing The Evolutionary Theory
  • 15. J.B.S. Haldane in the Haldane Lecture Theatre Evolution of Ageing First Understood Through Work at UCL • Huntington's chorea: a genetic, neurodegenerative disease caused by a highly penetrant dominant mutation. • 1941 Haldane: why has natural selection not acted to remove the Huntington's mutation from populations? • Average age of onset of Huntington's 35.5 years. • For much of the evolutionary history of mankind, most people did not live to be that old. • The selective pressure to remove the Huntington's mutation is therefore weak • Giant conceptual leap... perhaps that is what ageing is, the result of late-acting deleterious mutations?
  • 16. Peter Medawar Nobel Laureate for the discovery of immune tolerance Mutation accumulation theory Even in a population free of ageing, death will none the less occur, from extrinsic hazards such as disease, predators and accidents. Age Number alive
  • 17. Age Number alive Early acting mutation, most bearers still alive, strong force of natural selection Late acting mutation, few bearers still alive, weak force of natural selection • Recurrent, deleterious, GERM LINE mutations occur • Fewer bearers survive to express later-acting mutations • The force of natural selection against them declines with age • These mutations can therefore reach a higher frequency under mutation-selection balance
  • 18. The Pleiotropy or Trade-off Theory for the Evolution of Ageing George Williams American evolutionary biologist • Suppose there are mutations are beneficial in youth, but at the price of a higher rate of ageing • More individuals will survive to express the early benefit than will survive to suffer the higher rate of ageing • Mutations like this can therefore be incorporated by natural selection Ageing evolves as a side-effect of natural selection in favour of mutations that cause a benefit during youth
  • 19. The How of Ageing Three Mechanistic Theories
  • 20. The Rate-of-Living Theory (1928) Loeb and Northrop (1916, 1917): increasing temperature reduces Drosophila lifespan “…the duration of life varies inversely as the rate of energy expenditure … the length of life depends on the rate of living” Raymond Pearl Coefficient relating lifespan to ambient temperature = 2-3, like that of chemical reactions Effect of temperature on Drosophila lifespan 18˚C 21˚C 27˚C 30˚C
  • 21. Effect of temperature on metabolic rate and lifespan in Drosophila Lifetime oxygen consumption constant over physiological temperature range Miquel et al 1976 The life energy potential (LEP) is constant
  • 22. The free radical theory of ageing Denham Harman (1956) “A free radical is any species capable of independent existence (hence the term ‘free’) that contains one or more unpaired electron” Barry Halliwell & John Gutteridge X -> e- + X.+ Y + e- -> Y.- O2 + e- -> O2 .- Superoxide
  • 23. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) Reactive nitrogen species (RNS) Radicals Non-radicals --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Superoxide, O2 .- Hydrogen peroxide, H2O2 Hydroxyl, OH. Hypochlorous acid, HOCl Peroxyl, RO2 . Ozone, O3 Alkoxyl, RO. Peroxynitrite, ONOO- Hydroperoxyl, HO2 . --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ‘Superoxide theory of ageing?’ Oxidative damage theory of ageing
  • 24. Cellular Theories The Hayflick Limit (1961) Pre-1961: “All metazoan cells are potentially immortal. Ageing not cell autonomous” Is replicative senescence the cause of ageing? Leonard Hayflick Fibroblasts: connective tissue cells, e.g. from skin •Isolate cells from human tissue, place in culture vessel with nutrient medium •Cells divide and form confluent layer on vessel surface •Discard half the cells, allow remainder to grow to confluency = one passage •Continue to passage the cells •Cell replication slows and stops after 50 ± 10 passages: cells have reached the Hayflick limit and undergone replicative senescence Hayflick and Moorhead (1961)
  • 25. •Isolate mutants with altered rates of ageing •Map, clone and sequence genes concerned •Identify lifespan-determining proteins, biochemistry, etc •Understand ageing? The Classical Genetic Approach
  • 26. C. elegans A microbiverious terrestrial nematode, ~1.2 mm long Genome: ~97,000,000 bases; ~19,000 genes Signs of ageing •Reduced fertility, feeding, movement •Increased cuticular wrinking (collagen cross linking) •Increased protein carbonyl, mitochondrial DNA deletions, lipofuscin Male (X0) Hermaphrodite (XX)
  • 27. The hunt for lifespan mutants Short lived or long lived? Michael Klass (1983): First screen for long-lived mutants Tom Johnson (1988): age-1(hx546) mutation 65% increase in mean lifespan 110% increase in maximum lifespan Remains youthful for longer Tom Johnson Cynthia Kenyon (1993): Mutations in daf-2 greatly increase lifespan Cynthia Kenyon
  • 28. What is a dauer larva? C. elegans life cycle
  • 29. •Non-feeding, buccal cavity sealed, survive on stored food •Live for up to 70 days •Non-ageing: post dauer adults have normal lifespans Dauer Adult L3 •Developmentally arrested alternative third stage larva •Forms in response to high population density (dauer pheromone), high temperature, low food THE DAUER LARVA
  • 30. daf mutations daf: abnormal in dauer formation Daf-c: Dauer constitutive Daf-d: Dauer defective Genes regulating dauer formation and life span in C. elegans age-1 daf-2 Daf-c daf-16 Daf-d Dauer formation Increased lifespan Longevity gene!
  • 32. C. elegans lifespan genes have human homologues! age-1 Catalytic subunit of phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase daf-2 Insulin or IGF-1 receptor daf-16 FOXO-class forkhead transcription factor age-1 daf-2 Daf-c daf-16 Daf-d Dauer formation Increased lifespan Gary Ruvkun
  • 34. Is the role of insulin-like signalling evolutionarily conserved (‘public’) or unique to nematodes (‘private’)?
  • 36. The insulin-like pathway in Drosophila Does it control ageing? dFOXO dFOXO P P P Increased longevity?
  • 37. Insulin/IGF-1 signalling modulates ageing in insects as well as nematodes Drosophila melanogaster *Mutations in INR (fly daf-2): mean female lifespan increased by up to 85% *Mutation of chico (insulin receptor substrate), increases lifespan by up to 48% Implications *Wide evolutionary conservation of the role of insulin/IGF-signalling in the modulation of ageing: a public mechanism of ageing chico1 +
  • 38. Insulin/IGF-1 signalling and ageing in mammals! Worms, flies: One insulin/IGF-1 receptor Mammals: insulin receptor, IGF-1 receptor, insulin-receptor-like receptor…. Insulin receptor •Mild reduction of function of IR gene: type 2 (non-insulin dependent) diabetes Insulin signalling promotes ageing? Unlikely?
  • 39. Extended longevity in mice lacking the insulin receptor in adipose tissue Ron Kahn (2003): fat-specific insulin receptor knockout (FIRKO) mouse Protected against age-related obesity 18% increase in mean lifespan in both sexes (Blüher et al. Science 2003)
  • 40. IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor 1 Anterior pituitary gland Growth hormone (GH) IGF-1 Cell survival, growth Puberty, gonadal function Reduced adiposity Liver The somatotropic axis
  • 41. IGF-1 receptor regulates lifespan and resistance to oxidative stress in mice Holzenberger (2002): Mice heterozygous for a deletion of the IGF-1 receptor gene Resistant to oxidative stress Increased mean lifespan (33% females, males not long lived) (Holzenberger et al. Nature 2002)