Aging in 1000 healthy young adults: the Dunedin Study

 描述（由申请人提供）：生育率下降，婴儿潮一代的老龄化和预期寿命的增加导致人口老龄化。随着人口老龄化，这增加了与年龄有关的疾病的公共卫生负担，如心血管疾病，2型糖尿病和痴呆症。在晚年治疗未预防的疾病已被证明是昂贵和无效的。现在人们知道，可能可预防的风险暴露和与年龄有关的疾病的生理原因出现在儿童时期。这种认识为从童年开始跟踪队列的研究提供了新的科学意义。现在还知道，与年龄有关的疾病的发病机制涉及器官系统的逐渐累积衰退，从生命历程的前半期开始。因此，旨在预防与年龄有关的疾病的新的干预措施必须在个人还年轻时，在他们达到中年之前应用于他们。缺乏将基础科学老年学发现转化为年轻人干预措施的研究，因为对生命历程前半期的生物衰老过程几乎一无所知。这促使我们建议研究生物学的发展速度， 从二十几岁开始变老我们将使用达尼丁多学科健康与发展研究，这是一项对出生队列的纵向研究，现已进入第五个十年。这项研究结合了人口统计学/经济调查、临床质量健康评估、生物银行和全国行政记录（健康、福利、财政）的联系。我们建议对出生队列的1004名活体成员实施全天数据收集协议。为了评估每个队列成员的生物老化速度，我们将：（a）测量多个器官系统的生物标志物，和（B）在26岁、32岁、38岁和45岁时评估的这些生物标志物的统计学模型相关变化。我们将描述衰老速度的个体差异，以及其发育起源，基因组特征，功能后果和经济成本。我们将找出区分身体比实际年龄小几个月或几年的个体的属性。拟议的工作将通过产生研究结果来支持未来的干预措施，以减缓衰老，预防与年龄相关的疾病，并提高长寿的质量，从而提高知识。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Declining fertility rates, aging of the baby-boomers, and increasing life expectancy are leading to population aging. As the population ages, this increases the public-health burden of age-related conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and dementia. Treating un-prevented diseases in late life has proven costly and ineffective. It is now known that potentially preventable risk exposures and physiological causes of age-related disease emerge in childhood. This recognition lends new scientific significance to studies that have followed cohorts from childhood. It is also now known that the pathogenesis of age-related diseases involves gradually accumulating decline in organ systems, beginning in the first half of the life course. Consequently, new interventions aiming to prevent age-related diseases will have to be applied to individuals while they are yet young, before they reach midlife. Translation of basic-science geronotology discoveries into interventions for young humans is lacking because virtually nothing is known about the process of biological aging during the first half of the life course. This prompts our proposal to study the pace of biological aging from the twenties forward. We will use the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Study, a longitudinal study of a birth cohort now entering its fifth decade. This study combines methods of demographic/economic surveys, clinical- quality health assessments, biobanking, and linkage to nationwide administrative records (health, welfare, finances). We propose to administer a full-day data-collection protocol to the 1004 living members of the birth cohort. To assess each cohort member's pace of biological aging we will: (a) measure biomarkers across multiple organ systems, and (b) statistically model correlated change in these biomarkers assessed at ages 26, 32, 38, and 45 years. We will describe individual variation in the pace of aging, plus its developmental origins, genomic signatures, functional consequences, and economic costs. We will identify attributes that set apart individuals whose bodies are months or years younger than their chronological age. The proposed work will improve knowledge by generating findings to support future interventions to slow aging, prevent age-related disease, and improve the quality of longer lives.