The cell biology of human aging.

Abstract

Of all the conflicting views on the causes of biologic aging, there is little disagreement with the axiom that, after reaching sexual maturity, individual members of a species accumulate physiologic decrements that lead to an increase in their likelihood of dying. In fact, for man the actuarial data, first analyzed by the English actuary Gompertz in 1825, reveal that the force of mortality doubles every seven years beyond the age of 30 — that is, after maturity, the rate and probability of dying are exponential with increasing age. The decrements in a variety of human physiologic functions, although subject to . . .