Composite Aging Markers Can Be Used for Quantitative Profiling of Aging.

In the absence of a single marker that reliably reflects biological aging, or even an exact definition of biological age, compound aging scores that combine multiple aging biomarkers into a single composite aging score can quantitatively reflect the age-related changes over time. If aging is viewed as the broad accumulation of alterations over time, a composite score that reflects numerous diverse aspects of these alterations can be used as a quantitative approximation of aging. Profiling the changes of the composite aging score over time shows variations in the pace of aging at different chronological ages, such that the changes over time show distinct stages separated by a short period of rapid aging. These observations are difficult to explain by molecular entropy or stochastic accumulation of irreparable environmental damage alone, as a process driven solely by entropy or stochasticity is not expected to have signs of distinct stages or leaps in aging. These results are in agreement with some previous observations in other organisms, indicating the possibility of the involvement of pathways in the process of aging. Given this evidence, the contention that aging can be driven also by biological pathways should be considered.