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Biological Age: A Dynamic Response to Severe Stress

Helping the body recover from stress could contribute to increased longevity

24-Apr-2023

Key points from article :

Biological age was found to be dynamic and responsive to severe stress, such as surgery, pregnancy, and severe COVID-19.

Researchers used "biological clocks" to measure health of cells and tissues, looking at DNA methylation levels.

Patients undergoing major surgery showed increased biological age, which returned to baseline within a week.

Both human and mouse subjects showed increased biological age during pregnancy, which resolved postpartum.

COVID-19 hospitalized female patients showed a partially reversed increase in biological age upon ICU discharge; male patients saw no significant change.

“Our findings challenge the concept that biological age can only increase over a person’s lifetime and suggest that it may be possible to identify interventions that could slow or even partially reverse biological age,” said senior author Vadim Gladyshev

Research by  Brigham’s Division of Genetics, lead by Jesse Poganik, published in Cell Metabolism. 

Mentioned in this article:

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Brigham and Women's Hospital

Teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.

Cell Metabolism

Scientific Journal providing information from many different areas of metabolism.

Jesse Poganik

Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School

Vadim Gladyshev

Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School

Topics mentioned on this page:
Biological Age, Coronavirus
Biological Age: A Dynamic Response to Severe Stress