Age Pigment, A Biochemical Indicator of Intracellular Aging

Abstract

Teleologically, investigators in the field of aging have considered the formation and accumulation of age pigments or lipofuscin as a deleterious event for the complex intracellular biological processes and a poor prognostic indicator for the nerve cell. With this in mind, age pigment has come to be associated with the functional decadence of cells and organs. This prevailing opinion was derived from findings of early neuropathologists who first correlated increased deposition of age pigment in cells with age. White (1889) proposed that pigmented cells in the central nervous system were a sign of functional decadence. On the other hand, Schafer (1893) had maintained that the accumulation of age pigment was, in fact, a sign of neurone functional activity. Since that time, arguments on the intraneuronal role of lipofuscin or age pigment have continued, without clear evidence being presented for either view. At a later date, nutritional studies provided evidence for a second autofluorescent lipopigment which accumulated in vitamin E deficient animals (Martin and Moore, 1936). This second lipopigment was termed ceroid by Lillie et al (1941).KeywordsAutophagic VacuoleBiochemical IndicatorResidual BodyIntracellular PeroxidePrimary LysosomeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.