The twelve hallmarks of ageing
López-Otín and colleagues, published in Cell · First set out in 2013, revised to twelve in 2023.
A group of biologists proposed a framework for what actually changes in cells as an organism ages. It has become the map the whole field uses, and the 2023 revision lists twelve processes. Almost every molecule marketed as an anti-ageing treatment claims to act on one of them. That is worth understanding, because it is also the source of the most common error in this field: a mechanism is not a treatment, and something that alters a process in a dish or a mouse has not been shown to help a person.
The twelve, in the 2023 revision
- 01Genomic instability
- 02Telomere attrition
- 03Epigenetic alterations
- 04Loss of proteostasis
- 05Disabled macroautophagy
- 06Deregulated nutrient sensing
- 07Mitochondrial dysfunction
- 08Cellular senescence
- 09Stem cell exhaustion
- 10Altered intercellular communication
- 11Chronic inflammation
- 12Dysbiosis
What this changes here
Our reading, not theirs.
This is genuine science and it is why the field is worth following. It is also, in the wrong hands, the most effective sales tool in healthspan: name a hallmark, name a compound that touches it, and the leap to a person's health is made in the reader's head rather than in a trial. When we write about one of these, we say which step has been demonstrated and in what - cells, mice or people.
The topics this bears on
Where to go next
The other work we read