84494 - Biology of Ageing

Learning outcomes

Describe the biological basis and physiological consequences of ageing. Describe basic concepts of demography and epidemiology of ageing. Describe the possible life-style modifications to counteract ageing and age-related diseases.

Course contents

Introduction: Biology of Ageing, overview on the main theories of ageing; molecular mechanisms and hallmarks of ageing. Ageing and age-associated diseases as a continuum.

Immunosenescence: the ageing of the immune system. Main features and consequences for the organismal ageing. Theory of Inflammaging and supporting data. Cell senescence and senolytic therapies.

Biomarkers of human ageing. Glycomic markers. Mitokines and mitochondrial stress. Epigenetic markers: DNA methylation and methylation clocks. Volatile Organic Compounds.

Human longevity. Centenarians as a model of successful ageing. Biological features of centenarians. Demography of centenarians: the blue zones. Human lifespan limits.

Readings/Bibliography

Pontieri’s Patologia Generale & Fisiopatologia Generale, VI edition, Chapter 15 (in italian) and related references. Power point files with slides are available at the VIRTUALE repository.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures with ppt slides.

Assessment methods

At the end of the Course, an exam will verify the level of knowledge of the arguments of the Course content. The exam consist in an oral individual test. The final grade of the Course is defined by the average of the votes reported in two questions about specific topics relevant to the educational objectives of the Course. The student will be asked to answer to a third question (and the grade reported will be part of the final evaluation) if it will be necessary to verify the complete achievement of the educational objective of the Course.

Grading procedure:

- knowledge of a very limited number of topics and limited analytical capacity → 18-19 out of 30;

- knowledge of a limited number of topics and basic analytical capacity → 20-24 out of 30;

- knowledge of a consistent number of topics and good analytical capacity → 25-29 out of 30;

- knowledge of all topics and very good analytical capacity → 30-30L out of 30.

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Salvioli