Rejuvenation research最新文献

The phenomenon of ageism has been studied extensively in the Western world, but there is only a small number of studies among medical staff in Russia. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of ageism and to identify variables that can explain ageism in a sample of physicians and nurses in Russia. This is a prospective cross-sectional study of physicians and nurses who participated in a training course in the years 2016-2018 in Russia. Data collected before the start of training included the Fraboni scale of ageism (FSA) questionnaire, and sociodemographic characteristics including age, gender, profession, professional seniority, place of work, and number of older adults treated by the study participant over the past half year. In total, 903 physicians and nurses participated in the study. The mean FSA score was 2.75 ± 0.49, which indicates a moderate degree of ageism. There was a trend to higher scores among nurses compared with physicians (2.78 ± 0.50 vs. 2.76 ± 0.48, p < 0.465). There was a weak, but statistically significant, correlation between ageism and age (r = 0.157, p < 0.0001), professional seniority (r = 0.098, p < 0.003), and the number of older adult patients treated by the participant over the prior half year (r = 0.075, p < 0.025). There were no differences in other characteristics including gender, profession, work setting, or serving as main caregiver for a family member and the magnitude of ageism. The phenomenon of ageism exists among physicians and nurses in Russia. Older participants with greater professional seniority and a larger number of older patients had stronger ageism attitudes.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic debilitating fibrotic lung disease leading to respiratory failure and ultimately to death. Noninvasive biomarkers, for the early diagnosis, differential diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction of therapeutic response, are needed. Previous studies support a role for periostin in lung fibrosis. The aim of our study was to analyze periostin levels in the airways of patients with IPF and to investigate its role as a useful predictive biomarker of the disease. We enrolled 30 IPF patients and 5 control subjects. All subjects underwent all standard radiological, functional, and biological examinations for IPF diagnosis and staging and exhaled breath condensate (EBC) collection. Periostin was assessed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit on EBC. Periostin was dosable in the EBC of all subjects enrolled. We found higher exhaled periostin levels in IPF patients than healthy controls (65.5 ± 23.5 pg/mL vs. 33 ± 21.4 pg/mL, p < 0.05). Moreover, in receiver operating characteristic analysis, the clinical reference value of periostin was 37.88 pg/mL to discriminate patients with IPF from healthy subjects, with the area under the curve of 0.8815. There was no significant correlation between periostin levels and gender or pulmonary function tests. These preliminary results support our working hypothesis that periostin is dosable in the airways of patients with IPF. As the circulating periostin, also airways periostin may be a potential biomarker to support IPF diagnosis and to monitor disease progression during follow-up.

The diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a major disabling complication of diabetes mellitus. Growing evidence suggests that topical erythropoietin (EPO) can promote wound healing. The aim of this study is to clinically assess the efficacy of a proprietary topical EPO-containing hydrogel for treating DFUs. We conducted a randomized, controlled trial in 20 patients with DFUs. After a 14-day screening period, the DFUs of 20 eligible participants who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned (1:1) to either a 12-week of daily treatment with topical EPO and standard-of-care (SOC) or SOC treatment alone. The DFUs were assessed weekly until week 12. The primary outcome was 75% ulcer closure or higher. After 12 weeks of treatment, 75% ulcer closure was achieved in 6 of the 10 patients whose DFUs were treated with topical EPO and in one of the 8 patients whose DFUs were treated with SOC alone. The mean area of the DFUs that were treated with topical EPO and SOC was significantly smaller than those treated with SOC alone (1.2 ± 1.4 cm² vs. 4.2 ± 3.4 cm²; p = 0.023). Re-epithelialization was faster in the topically EPO-treated DFUs than in the SOC-treated DFUs. There were no treatment-related adverse events. We conclude that topical EPO is a promising treatment for promoting the healing of DFUs. Clinical Trial Registration number: NCT02361931.

Inflammaging, the increase of proinflammatory processes with increasing age, has multiple mechanisms from increasing numbers of senescent cells secreting cytokines to changes in metabolic processes. Alterations of oxygen metabolism with aging, especially decreased levels of O₂ with age resulting from endocrine and cardiovascular dysfunction as well as desensitization of cellular response to hypoxia, may exacerbate inflammaging, which in turn creates further oxygen metabolic dysfunction. During aging, decline in levels of erythrocyte 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate (2,3-BPG), BPG mutase, and adenosine A2B receptor, a key adenosine signaling receptor that can augment 2,3-BPG expression, may fail to protect sensitive brain tissue from subtly reduced O₂ levels, in turn resulting in increased numbers of activated microglia and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, ultimately promoting inflammaging and senescence of endothelial cells. Interventions to restore O₂ levels directly or via increasing 2,3-BPG may help promote cognitive health in old age, but significant work to quantify the degree of reduced O₂ during aging in mammals, and especially humans, needs to be pursued.

Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) have been identified as a potentially ideal cell type for use in regenerative therapeutic contexts owing to their excellent paracrine secretory abilities and other desirable properties. Previous work has shown that stem cell-derived exosomes can effectively reduce skin aging, but few studies have specifically focused on the role of UCMSC-derived exosomes in this context. In this study, we isolated exosomes derived from UCMSCs grown in a three-dimensional culture system and explored their ability to modulate the photo-aging of HaCaT keratinocytes. Cell viability and proliferation were assessed using CCK8 assay, whereas wound healing and transwell assays were used to assess cell migratory capabilities. UVB irradiation (60 mJ/cm²) was used to induce photo-aging of HaCaT cells. TUNEL and SA-β-Gal staining were used to explore HaCaT cell apoptosis and senescence, respectively, whereas real-time quantitative PCR was used to assess the expression of relevant genes at the mRNA level. We found that UCMSC-derived exosomes were able to enhance normal HaCaT cell proliferation and migration while also inhibiting UVB-induced damage to these cells. These exosomes also reduced HaCaT cell apoptosis and senescence, increasing collagen type I expression and reducing matrix metalloproteinase (MMP1) expression in photo-aged HaCaT cells. Together, these findings indicate that UCMSC-derived exosomes have the potential to be used therapeutically to suppress skin aging.

This commentary discusses the unmet clinical and social needs associated with hypertrophic scars and keloids. The authors critically appraise these issues within the context of contemporary clinical standards of care and social mores catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the brain is the master regulator of the circadian clocks throughout the human body. With increasing age the circadian clock in humans and other mammals becomes increasingly disorganized leading to a large number of more or less well-categorized problems. While a lot of aging research has focused on the peripheral clocks in tissues across organisms, it remains a paramount task to quantify aging of the most important master clock, the human SCN. Furthermore, a pipeline needs to be developed with therapies to mitigate the systemic cellular circadian dysfunction in the elderly and ultimately repair and reverse aging of the SCN itself. A disease classification for the aging SCN, Circadian Clock Neuronal Senile Atrophy (CIRCLONSA syndrome), would improve research funding and goal-oriented biotechnological entrepreneurship.

Beneficial genetic or environmental factors that influence the length and quality of life can be evaluated while studying supercentenarians. The oldest-old can withstand serious/fatal illnesses more than their peers and/or their aging rate is decreased. Supercentenarians are an interesting group of individuals whose lifestyle is not particularly healthy according to the common guidelines, namely some of them seem to have similar harmful behaviors, but still manage to stay healthier for longer, and while eventually dying from the same degenerative diseases as the general population, they develop symptoms 20-30 years later. As there are not many supercentenarians by definition, it is worthwhile to diligently collect their data to enable future meta-analyses on larger samples; much can be learned from supercentenarians' habits and lifestyle choices about the aging process. Contributions of genetics, lifestyle choices, and epigenetics to their extended life span are discussed here.