Age-dependence of the lateral diffusion coefficient of Con-A receptor protein in the skeletal muscle membrane of C57BL/6J mice

What really declines with age? The Hayflick Lecture for 2006 35th American Aging Association

In order to understand the basic mechanisms underlying the organismic aging process, considerable efforts have been devoted in the last half-century to biochemical (enzyme activity) alterations in specific tissues and organs of various organisms associated with aging. When a decline in enzyme activities with age has been found in a study, especially for key enzymes such as antioxidant enzymes, the results have often been interpreted as a cause for the aging of the entire body. Retrospectively, however, these changes turned out to be so variable--depending on species, strains and sexes of animals--that the interpretation of these results in general terms of aging became invalid. Further, unlike the prediction for the whole human body, many enzyme activities in a vital organ, such as the liver, remained unchanged, as long as the old subjects remained healthy. However, enzyme activities in old animals and humans are often more susceptible to morbidities and frailties, which themselves are often accompanied by infections and malnutrition. Despite the rather stable enzyme functions in the liver with age, a distinct and progressive decline in the lateral diffusion coefficient of proteins of hepatocyte plasma membranes has been demonstrated by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), which was implicated as the cause for the decline of hepatocyte functions such as ouabain (and taurocholate) hepatic uptake and their eventual biliary excretion. Since a similar decline in protein diffusion coefficients was observed in brain and muscle cells, it is likely that these changes are occurring in common with many cell types of the body, thus causing a delay in transmembrane transport of endogenous and exogenous substances whose transports are mediated by membrane proteins. In attempts to prolong the life spans of animals other than by calorie restriction, but instead using deprenyl or tetrahydrocurcumin, works by the author and coworkers are introduced and discussed. Despite limited success along these lines thus far, further attempts are encouraged, primarily to understand the mechanisms underlying organismic aging processes and to find a practical way to prolong the health span of the elderly.

Pharmacological interventions against aging through the cell plasma membrane: a review of the experimental results obtained in animals and humans

As was shown in a recent review by this author (Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 928: 187-199, 2001), oxyradicals cannot be considered only as harmful by-products of the oxidative metabolism, but living cells and organisms implicitly require their production. This idea is supported by numerous facts and arguments, the most important of which is that the complete inhibition of the oxyradical production by KCN (or by any block of respiration) kills the living organisms long before the energy reserves would be exhausted. This new theoretical approach not only helps our understanding of the normal functions of the living organisms, such as the basic memory mechanisms in the brain cells, but also helps in identifying the site-specific, radical-induced damaging mechanisms that represent the undesirable side effects of oxygen free radicals. First of all, these effects make the cell plasma membrane vulnerable and cause a series of intracellular functional disorders, as described by the membrane hypothesis of aging (MHA). The logical way for any antiaging intervention therefore should be to increase the available number of loosely bound electrons inside the plasma membrane that are easily accessible for OH(*) free radical scavenging. The present review summarizes the available knowledge regarding the theory of the use of membrane-related antiaging pharmaca, like centrophenoxine (CPH), tested in both animal experiments and human clinical trials. A modified, developed version of CPH coded as BCE-001 is also reported.

Experimental gerontology in Hungary

Gerontological research has some past and sporadically also some highlights in Hungary, but its present state can be easily deduced from the following data. During the last 12 years and more, well over 10,000 Hungarian scientific papers have been published in well-recognized national or international journals. Altogether approximately 1% of them have been classified as gerontological publications from Hungary. This low figure shows that gerontology has low priority and--unfortunately low support--in Hungary. This statement does not intend to downgrade Hungarian gerontologists, however points out that the Hungarian trends are not far from those of European or world wide interest in aging. Despite the recognition that we have to accept the inevitable fact that industrial societies will have (they already have) an aging population with all the social and medical problems arising, the focus of interest is wide from this significant and interesting (sub)population, which is neglected (sometimes even despised); yet everybody is absolutely eager to join this club. The average of the Hungarian research achievements and publication activities are among the better European achievements. There are some highlights and new trends even initiated by some outstanding Hungarian scientists, yet the overall weight of gerontology research is still an orphan in the Hungarian scientific life. We deal in this short and far from complete summary almost exclusively with experimental gerontology. We have to apologize if we have not included everybody, who also contributed even significantly to this field because the time for the preparation of this overview was short.

Comparison of the lateral diffusion coefficient of hepatocyte plasma membrane proteins in three strains of sensescence accelerated mouse (SAM)

The lateral diffusion coefficients of proteins (D(p)) were measured in hepatocyte plasma membrane in freshly prepared liver smears by means of the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) method. D(p) was measured after development of peroxide-induced autofluorescence (PIAF) in a total of 115 senescence accelerated mice (SAM), distributed in three strains, at least five age-groups in each, as follows: (i) SAMR1TA (25 males and 22 females), medium life span (MLS) in months, under specific pathogen free (SPF) conditions, MLS(spf) 20.1 and 20.0, respectively, while under conventional conditions, MLS(Deltapf)=18.9 in average for both sexes; (ii) SAMP6/Ta (18 males and 17 females), MLS(spf)=17.1 and 15.3, respectively, and MLS(cc)=8.1 for both sexes; (iii) SAMP6/Ta (17 males and 16 females), MLS(spf)=15.6 and 14.7, respectively, and MLS(cc)=10.0 for both sexes. A highly significant negative linear age-correlation of D(p) (R=0.975 or higher) was found in each strain, being roughly proportional with the MLS(cc) values. Since the studied mice kept under SPF conditions survived longer, than under conventional conditions, the actual age-dependent decay rates of D(p) values did not differ significantly in two pairs of comparisons (female R1/P6 and female R1/P8), whereas they did in all other possible pairs, including also the normal C57BL/6 mice. The main conclusion can be drawn that the D(p) of hepatocyte membranes is a good biomarker of aging and survival also in SAM, as in all other inbred and outbred rodents, studied so far.

Lateral mobility of proteins and lipids of cell surface membranes during aging: do the data support 'The Membrane Hypothesis of Aging'?

Many previous studies regarding the change with age in surface membrane fluidity of different cell types, including hepatocytes, as determined by the fluorescence anisotropy method, are in conflict, demonstrating decreased, unchanged or even increased fluidity with age. In contrast, the results of our series of works using the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) technique, which measures protein lateral diffusion coefficients of hepatocyte surface membranes (Dp), have demonstrated that Dp generally declines in a linear fashion with age in hepatocytes of all animal strains and species examined. The major coworker (I. Zs.-Nagy) of these studies insists that our observations support his original hypothesis, 'The Membrane Hypothesis of Aging' (MHA), the primary assumption of which is that changes in cell surface membranes with age cause a general decline in intracellular enzyme activities. However, while it seems clear that cell surface membrane changes do occur with age, a number of past observations including those from the laboratory of this author, provide strong evidence that intracellular enzyme activities do not generally decline with age. This paper presents the data in detail, along with the author's view that the results do not support the main assumption of the MHA, but are more likely related to alterations in membrane functions with age.