A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Body Composition Among Healthy Elderly From the European NU-AGE Study: Sex and Country Specific Features.

Body composition (BC) is an emerging important factor for the characterization of metabolic status. The assessment of BC has been studied in various populations and diseases such as obesity, diabetes, endocrine diseases as well as physiological and paraphysiological conditions such as growth and aging processes, and physical training. A gold standard technique for the assessment of human BC at molecular level is represented by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), which is able to precisely assess the body mass (and areal bone mineral density-aBMD) on a regional and whole-body basis.

Cognitive status in the oldest old and centenarians: a condition crucial for quality of life methodologically difficult to assess.

Human life expectancy and the number of the oldest old are rapidly increasing worldwide. Advanced age is the main risk factor for dementia, representing one of the major causes of disability/dependency among older people with a strong impact on their families/caregivers. Centenarians have reached the extreme limits of human life escaping or delaying the major age-related diseases.

Gut Microbiota and Extreme Longevity.

The study of the extreme limits of human lifespan may allow a better understanding of how human beings can escape, delay, or survive the most frequent age-related causes of morbidity, a peculiarity shown by long-living individuals. Longevity is a complex trait in which genetics, environment, and stochasticity concur to determine the chance to reach 100 or more years of age [1]. Because of its impact on human metabolism and immunology, the gut microbiome has been proposed as a possible determinant of healthy aging [2, 3].

Centenarians' offspring as a model of healthy aging: a reappraisal of the data on Italian subjects and a comprehensive overview.

Within the scenario of an increasing life expectancy worldwide it is mandatory to identify determinants of healthy aging. Centenarian offspring (CO) is one of the most informative model to identify trajectories of healthy aging and their determinants (genetic and environmental), being representative of elderly in their 70th whose lifestyle can be still modified to attain a better health. This study is the first comprehensive investigation of the health status of 267 CO (mean age: 70.

Inflammaging and cancer: a challenge for the Mediterranean diet.

Aging is considered the major risk factor for cancer, one of the most important mortality causes in the western world. Inflammaging, a state of chronic, low-level systemic inflammation, is a pervasive feature of human aging. Chronic inflammation increases cancer risk and affects all cancer stages, triggering the initial genetic mutation or epigenetic mechanism, promoting cancer initiation, progression and metastatic diffusion.

Effect of monochloramine treatment on colonization of a hospital water distribution system by Legionella spp.: a 1 year experience study.

Contamination of hot water distribution systems by Legionella represents a great challenge due to difficulties associated with inactivating microorganisms, preserving the water characteristics. The aim of this study was to examine over the course of 1 year in 11 fixed sites, the impact of monochloramine disinfection on Legionella, heterotrophic bacteria (36 °C), Pseudomonas aeruginosa contamination, and chemical parameters of a plumbing system in an Italian hospital. Three days after installation (T0), in the presence of monochloramine concentration between 1.

Identification of a DNA methylation signature in blood cells from persons with Down Syndrome.

Down Syndrome (DS) is characterized by a wide spectrum of clinical signs, which include segmental premature aging of central nervous and immune systems. Although it is well established that the causative defect of DS is the trisomy of chromosome 21, the molecular bases of its phenotype are still largely unknown. We used the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip to investigate DNA methylation patterns in whole blood from 29 DS persons, using their relatives (mothers and unaffected siblings) as controls.

Age-related changes of adaptive and neuropsychological features in persons with Down Syndrome.

Down Syndrome (DS) is characterised by premature aging and an accelerated decline of cognitive functions in the vast majority of cases. As the life expectancy of DS persons is rapidly increasing, this decline is becoming a dramatic health problem. The aim of this study was to thoroughly evaluate a group of 67 non-demented persons with DS of different ages (11 to 66 years), from a neuropsychological, neuropsychiatric and psychomotor point of view in order to evaluate in a cross-sectional study the age-related adaptive and neuropsychological features, and to possibly identify early signs predictive of cognitive decline.

Gut microbiome in Down syndrome.

Background: Premature aging seriously compromises the health status of Down Syndrome (DS) persons. Since human aging has been associated with a deterioration of the gut microbiota (GM)-host mutualism, here we investigated the composition of GM in DS.

Methods: The observational study presented involved 17 adult DS persons.

Combating inflammaging through a Mediterranean whole diet approach: the NU-AGE project's conceptual framework and design.

The development of a chronic, low grade, inflammatory status named "inflammaging" is a major characteristic of ageing, which plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of age-related diseases. Inflammaging is both local and systemic, and a variety of organs and systems contribute inflammatory stimuli that accumulate lifelong. The NU-AGE rationale is that a one year Mediterranean whole diet (considered by UNESCO a heritage of humanity), newly designed to meet the nutritional needs of the elderly, will reduce inflammaging in fully characterized subjects aged 65-79 years of age, and will have systemic beneficial effects on health status (physical and cognitive).

How to classify the oldest old according to their health status: a study on 1160 subjects belonging to 552 90+ Italian sib-ships characterized by familial longevity recruited within the GEHA EU Project.

The health status of the oldest old, the fastest increasing population segment worldwide, progressively becomes more heterogeneous, and this peculiarity represents a major obstacle to their classification. We compared the effectiveness of four previously proposed criteria (Franceschi et al., 2000; Evert et al.

Immune system, cell senescence, aging and longevity--inflamm-aging reappraised.

Inflamm-aging, that is the age-associated inflammatory status, is considered one of the most striking consequences of immunosenescence, as it is believed to be linked to the majority of age-associated diseases sharing an inflammatory basis. Nevertheless, evidence is emerging that inflamm-aging is at least in part independent from immunological stimuli. Moreover, centenarians who avoided or delayed major inflammatory diseases display markers of inflammation.

Remodelling of biological parameters during human ageing: evidence for complex regulation in longevity and in type 2 diabetes.

Factor structure analyses have revealed the presence of specific biological system markers in healthy humans and diseases. However, this type of approach in very old persons and in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is lacking. A total sample of 2,137 Italians consisted of two groups: 1,604 healthy and 533 with T2DM.

Inflammaging and anti-inflammaging: a systemic perspective on aging and longevity emerged from studies in humans.

A large part of the aging phenotype, including immunosenescence, is explained by an imbalance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory networks, which results in the low grade chronic pro-inflammatory status we proposed to call inflammaging. Within this perspective, healthy aging and longevity are likely the result not only of a lower propensity to mount inflammatory responses but also of efficient anti-inflammatory networks, which in normal aging fail to fully neutralize the inflammatory processes consequent to the lifelong antigenic burden and exposure to damaging agents. Such a global imbalance can be a major driving force for frailty and common age-related pathologies, and should be addressed and studied within an evolutionary-based systems biology perspective.