If you exercise regularly, refrain from smoking, and have scored in the genetic lottery, then you may be able to truthfully shave a few years off your age. Researchers from the University of North Carolinas Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have now found a way to calculate cellular aging, as they reported in a study that will be published in the journal, Aging Cell.
Five years ago, these same researchers discovered that as cells and tissue age, the expression of a certain protein--p16INK4a--dramatically increases in most mammalian organs. Now they have proven that p16INK4a is present in human blood, and theyve paved the way toward creating a simple blood test to measure a persons molecularas opposed to just chronologicalage.
In their study, the researchers tested the blood of 170 healthy volunteers, who also filled out a questionnaire about current and past health status and health behaviors. They found that the expression of the biomarker strongly correlated with the donors chronological age and, in fact, increased exponentially with age. In addition, increased levels were independently associated with tobacco use.
Norman Sharpless, M.D., the senior author of the study, wasnt surprised to find that cigarette smoking accelerates cellular aging. What did surprise us, was the very beneficial effect of exercise. It makes you molecularly younger. And despite other studies that suggest calorie restriction slows aging, We found a very weak correlation between the biomarker and obesity, said Dr. Sharpless, who is also an associate professor of medicine and genetics at UNCs School of Medicine.
