Exposure to certain environmental factors speeds up aging, a new research by the University of North Carolina shows.
External factors that affect the body's biological age are known as gerontegens. Researchers found that exposure to toxic things like benzene, cigarette smoke and stress has a great impact on the aging process.
"The rate of physiologic, or molecular, aging differs between individuals in part because of exposure to 'gerontogens', i.e., environmental factors that affect aging," said Norman Sharpless from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "We believe just as an understanding of carcinogens has informed cancer biology, so will an understanding of gerontogens benefit the study of aging. By identifying and avoiding gerontogens, we will be able to influence aging and life expectancy at a public health level," he said in a press release.
If public health is considered, cigarette smoke is probably the most important gerontogen, Sharpless said. Cigarettes are associated with cancers and also atherosclerosis, pulmonary fibrosis and other diseases associated with age.
Sharpless said that the UV radiation from the sun speeds up aging too. He, along with his colleagues, recently showed that chemotherapy treatment is also a strong gerontogen. This they detected with the help of a mouse model that they developed.
The researchers said that an intensive research effort in order to understand the clinical uses for molecular tests of aging as well as the epidemiology of accelerated aging is required. They said that in the future, blood tests assessing biomarkers of molecular age might be used to understand differences among individuals in aging rates.
"We believe the comparison of molecular markers of aging to clinical outcomes should begin in earnest," Sharpless said. For example, he asked, can biomarkers to aging predict toxicity from surgery or chemotherapy in patients in whom chronological age was already a known risk factor? "The potential for miscommunication and other harm seems real," he said.
