Medical research

You may think that ageing is a recent concern: but think again. The British Society for Research on Ageing was set up in the 1930s, and the annual scientific meeting which it held in July in Brighton was 61st in the series. Here are a few of the highlights. We can expect at least some of these high-flown ideas to emerge from the lab and turn into new treatments, therapies or health advice in the next few years.

BSRA chair Professor Richard Faragher is based at the University of Brighton. Asked what he thinks is the high point of the conference, he points to work on "senescent cells" that build up in the body as we age. He explains that they have a positive role in preventing cancer, but are themselves toxic. For example, they help lay down the deposits that make arteries harden. "Now we know more about these cells we can think about ways to get rid of them, or perhaps reprogram them to behave differently," says Faragher.

Also in the limelight at the BSRA was the whole area of "epigenetics". The idea is that our genes do not determine who we are. Our genes can turn on and off at different stages in our lives, in response to all kinds of pressure, such as stress, chemical pollution, or signals from what and how much we eat.

Jane Mellor of Oxford University told the meeting that we are now getting to know which chemicals might control osteoporosis. This bone-wasting disease, she says, occurs when two rival processes, bone loss and bone manufacture, cease to happen at matching pace. Work with mice has shed light on the chemicals that control the genes in charge of these two mechanisms.

The epigenetic approach may also yield insights into the genes that control muscle loss in older people. Drugs may even emerge that control genes responsible for weight. But there is also some bad news. Many of these epigenetic effects seem to be driven by things that happen to us in the womb, or not long after birth, making it hard to do much about them now.

Our best lunch-queue discussion at BSRA was with Professor Janet Lord of the Centre for Healthy Ageing Research at the University of Birmingham. She has found that it is not just sentiment that makes people say someone "died of a broken heart". People are unusually likely to die in the months just after a bereavement, or a serious injury such as a fall involving a hip fracture. But the reason is not in the heart. Instead it is in the immune system. Under pressure from such an injury, the immune system can stop producing the hormones that people need to protect themselves from disease, especially pneumonia. Her research is looking for ways to do something about the resulting death toll.

Finally, what’s the oldest thing you have ever eaten? If you like seafood, you may have consumed something born before Queen Victoria. The Ocean Quahog, a common component of clam chowder, lives for about 400 years. This makes them the longest-living of all complex animals. They don’t look like us but they have all the same body parts as we do. Faragher says that exactly how they manage to live so long is a fertile area for ageing research. Part of the story is that they live in the deep ocean and inhabit a thick shell. They are literally too tough for any predator to tackle. As a result, they can put energy into living a long time that other species spend on self-preservation. Ralf Schaible from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, is leading this research.

First published July 25, 2011