Inflammaging and anti-inflammaging: a systemic perspective on aging and longevity emerged from studies in humans
- Mech Ageing Dev. 2007 Jan;128(1):92-105. doi: 10.1016/j.mad.2006.11.016.
- 1. Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna, via S. Giacomo 12, 40126 Bologna, Italy. [email protected]
A large part of the aging phenotype, including immunosenescence, is explained by an imbalance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory networks, which results in the low grade chronic pro-inflammatory status we proposed to call inflammaging. Within this perspective, healthy aging and longevity are likely the result not only of a lower propensity to mount inflammatory responses but also of efficient anti-inflammatory networks, which in normal aging fail to fully neutralize the inflammatory processes consequent to the lifelong antigenic burden and exposure to damaging agents. Such a global imbalance can be a major driving force for frailty and common age-related pathologies, and should be addressed and studied within an evolutionary-based systems biology perspective. Evidence in favor of this conceptualization largely derives from studies in humans. We thus propose that inflammaging can be flanked by anti-inflammaging as major determinants not only of immunosenescence but eventually of global aging and longevity.