From Worms to Mammals: Genes that Control the Rate of Aging |
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| Launch in standalone player | |
| Air date: | Wednesday, February 20, 2008, 3:00:00 PM |
| Category: | Wednesday Afternoon Lectures |
| Runtime: | 65 minutes |
| NLM Title: | From worms to mammals : genes that control the rate of aging [electronic resource] / Cynthia Kenyon. |
| Series: | NIH director's Wednesday afternoon lecture series |
| Author: | Kenyon, Cynthia. National Institutes of Health (U.S.) |
| Publisher: | [Bethesda, Md. : National Institutes of Health, 2008] |
| Other Title(s): | NIH director's Wednesday afternoon lecture series |
| Abstract: | (CIT): Aging has long been assumed to be a passive consequence of molecular wear and tear. But it's not so simple. Our discoveries have led to the realization that the aging process, like everything else in biology, is under exquisite regulation, in this case, by a complex, multifaceted hormonal and transcriptional system that affects aging in many species, including mammals. In 1993, we showed that changing a single gene in the small roundworm C. elegans can double its lifespan. This gene encodes an insulin/IGF-1 like receptor, which indicates that aging is regulated hormonally. By manipulating genes and cells, we have now been able to extend the lifespan and period of youthfulness of healthy, active C. elegans by six times. We have found that signals from the reproductive system and sensory neurons influence the lifespan of C. elegans, and these processes, too, may be evolutionarily conserved. These signals act, at least in part, to control the expression of a wide variety of subordinate genes, including antioxidant, stress response, antimicrobial, and novel genes, whose activities act in a cumulative fashion to determine the lifespan of the animal. Some of these subordinate genes can also influence the progression of age-related disease. In this way, this hormone system couples the natural aging process to age-related disease susceptibility. |
| Subjects: | Aging--physiology Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins Gene Expression Regulation Longevity--genetics |
| Publication Types: | Government Publications Lectures |
| Download: | Download
Video How to download a Videocast |
| NLM Classification: | WT 104 |
| NLM ID: | 101469026 |
| CIT File ID: | 14308 |
| CIT Live ID: | 6211 |
| Permanent link: | http://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?14308 |
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Enhanced Video Podcast | 1:04:08 |
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Enhanced Video Podcast | 1:04:08 | |