Bilinski Tomasz, Bylak Aneta, Zadrag-Tecza Renata
Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of Rzeszow, 35-601 Rzeszow, Poland.
Department of Environmental Biology, University of Rzeszow, 35-601 Rzeszow, Poland.
Aging (Albany NY). 2016 Apr;8(4):589-602. doi: 10.18632/aging.100931.
Surveys of taxonomic groups of animals have shown that contrary to the opinion of most gerontologists aging is not a genuine trait. The process of aging is not universal and its mechanisms have not been widely conserved among species. All life forms are subject to extrinsic and intrinsic destructive forces. Destructive effects of stochastic events are visible only when allowed by the specific life program of an organism. Effective life programs of immortality and high longevity eliminate the impact of unavoidable damage. Organisms that are capable of agametic reproduction are biologically immortal. Mortality of an organism is clearly associated with terminal specialisation in sexual reproduction. The longevity phenotype that is not accompanied by symptoms of senescence has been observed in those groups of animals that continue to increase their body size after reaching sexual maturity. This is the result of enormous regeneration abilities of both of the above-mentioned groups. Senescence is observed when: (i) an organism by principle switches off the expression of existing growth and regeneration programs, as in the case of imago formation in insect development; (ii) particular programs of growth and regeneration of progenitors are irreversibly lost, either partially or in their entirety, in mammals and birds.
对动物分类群体的调查表明，与大多数老年医学专家的观点相反，衰老并非一种真正的特征。衰老过程并非普遍存在，其机制在物种间也未得到广泛保存。所有生命形式都受到外在和内在破坏力量的影响。随机事件的破坏作用只有在生物体特定的生命程序允许时才可见。有效的永生和长寿生命程序消除了不可避免的损害的影响。能够进行无性生殖的生物体在生物学上是永生的。生物体的死亡显然与有性生殖中的终末特化有关。在那些性成熟后身体大小继续增加的动物群体中，观察到了没有衰老症状的长寿表型。这是上述两类动物具有巨大再生能力的结果。在以下情况下会观察到衰老：(i) 生物体原则上关闭现有生长和再生程序的表达，如昆虫发育中成虫形成的情况；(ii) 祖细胞的特定生长和再生程序在哺乳动物和鸟类中部分或全部不可逆转地丧失。
