AGEISM · Lifelong health, markers of ageing and senescence in a long-lived mammal.

Lifelong health, markers of ageing and senescence in a long-lived mammal.

The ageing populations of most European countries involve major health, economic and social consequences. It is thus critical to understand the limitations of deferring the negative effects of ageing and the mechanisms involved in growing old. Improving the quality of life at old age in humans and predicting future changes in longevity patterns of societies might depend on our ability to develop indicators of how old we really are and how many healthy years we have ahead of us, and how those indicators depend on our health history across decades. Such efforts for reducing the impact of senescence in humans might be best investigated in equally long-lived animals. The aim of this fellowship was to improve our understanding of the factors that cause some individuals to age faster than others and influence ageing patterns, and to better grasp both the mechanisms of ageing and their consequences on senescence rates in long-lived species. To do so, I used innovative approaches by combining the study of senescence patterns to ageing mechanisms and how they interact with variations in lifelong health and stress status, and endocrinological measures of stress in Asian elephants. Overall, this Marie Curie Fellowship has resulted in the understanding of the variation in senescence patterns, its links to ageing rates and stress levels, but also to better understand ageing mechanisms and their consequences on senescence rates, in a long-lived species as humans. The substantial data and biological samples that have been collected through this project have contributed significantly to our understanding of the factors shaping senescence patterns in the Asian elephant, while paving the way for more in-depth molecular analyses. These analyses - which are currently underway - will help to better understand the underlying mechanisms of such patterns and to establish ageing markers as a potential health marker. My results will also contribute to provide new solutions to elephant management and healthcare.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union