“Positive biology”: the centenarian lesson

Immunity & Ageing

Giovanni Scapagnini³  Annibale Puca¹  Giuseppe Passarino⁴  Calogero Caruso² 

[1] IRCCS Multimedica, Milan, Italy and University of Salerno, Baronissi, Italy;Department of Pathobiology and Medical and Forensic Biotechnologies, University of Palermo, Corso Tukory 211, 90134, Palermo, Italy;Department of Health Sciences, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy;Department of Cell Biology, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

关键词: “Positive Biology”;    Longevity;    Frailty;    Ageing;   

Others  :  820553
DOI  :  10.1186/1742-4933-9-5

 received in 2012-04-05, accepted in 2012-04-23,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

The extraordinary increase of the elderly in developed countries underscore the importance of studies on ageing and longevity and the need for the prompt spread of knowledge about ageing in order to satisfactorily decrease the medical, economic and social problems associated to advancing years, because of the increased number of individuals not autonomous and affected by invalidating pathologies.

Centenarians are equipped to reach the extreme limits of human life span and, most importantly, to show relatively good health, being able to perform their routine daily life and to escape fatal age-related diseases. Thus, they are the best example of extreme longevity, representing selected people in which the appearance of major age-related diseases, such as cancer, and cardiovascular diseases among others, has been consistently delayed or escaped. To discuss the relevance of genetics and life style in the attainment of longevity, five papers mostly focused on Italian centenarians have been assembled in this series. The aim is to realize, through a” positive biology” approach (rather than making diseases the central focus of research, “positive biology” seeks to understand the causes of positive phenotypes, trying to explain the biological mechanisms of health and well-being) how to prevent and/or reduce elderly frailty and disability.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Caruso et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

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