Читать книгу General system theory of aging. Special role of the immune system - V. I. Dontsov - Страница 18

Growth and development are integral parts of life. The main mechanism of programmed regulation at the stage of organism formation is known: usually, a decrease in the function of suppressor cells leads to disinhibition of stimulating cells producing a regulatory factor. Nervous regulatory cells are concentrated primarily in the autonomic regulatory centers of the hypothalamus, in the nuclei of which the death of up to 80% of these cells is observed with age. The disinhibition of stimulating cells gives a constant growing gradient of a regulating factor with a maximum when the inhibitory population is completely disabled. Such a gradient, for example, of sex hormones (the final factors that realize the regulation for a given function) leads to the inclusion of puberty. If we assume that regulatory cells wear out with age, die in a random, probabilistic manner and do not resume, then it is easy to see that the age dynamics of these cells and the final regulatory factor can produce complex dynamics responsible for growth and development and for the subsequent period of aging.

We have proposed a general model of such regulation, which consists in disinhibition of stimulating cells when inhibiting death, which determines growth and development, but if death also affects stimulating regulatory cells, then over time the development program is depleted – regulatory aging develops (Dontsov, 1990, 2011, 2017). Interestingly, this is essentially the only and very simple model that describes changes in viability (and mortality as a quantitative criterion of aging in general) during all periods of an organism’s life. The latter suggests that regulatory mechanisms may play a crucial role in the aging process of the organism as a whole; while the remaining 3 common mechanisms of aging contribute to the last years of life and against the background of already developed pronounced regulatory changes.

Given the fact that the body has enough long-lived non-dividing nerve cells in other parts of the brain, we can speak about the fundamental possibility of a sharp slowdown in aging by replacing (transplant) quickly dying regulatory cells by long-lived or young, by reducing their death, pharmacologic stimulation, hypnosis, etc. Known since antiquity techniques of yoga, associated with psychopathy and activation of the lower-back parts of the brain.

Typical mechanisms of regulatory changes associated with aging in humans are — the end of growth (growth hormone) and development (sex hormones, menopause), immunity involution (epiphys hormones), changes in the insular system (latent diabetes of the elderly), etc., however, the main question remains — what is the main regulatory mechanism closely related to aging.

The most important mechanism to resist aging is, as noted above, cell division, which alone is capable of fully resisting all four common mechanisms of aging; its slowdown is critical for the manifestation of aging of self-renewing tissues, which are in the majority of mammals.

Therefore, the reduction of growth factors for self-renewing cells and the power of other regulatory systems of cell growth (including depletion and change in stem cell activity) is, in our opinion, the most important mechanism for the realization of aging in many species and in humans as well.

We have therefore developed an immuno-regulatory theory of aging (here “theory” is understood in the narrow sense as an important mechanism of aging), showing that age-related immune deficiency (as a result of central regulatory changes) affects the regulation of cellular growth of somatic tissues, being the most important mechanism for the aging of mammals in general and humans in particular (Dontsov, 1990, 2011, 2017).

In addition, regulatory mechanisms are important in connection with the end of growth and development programs, with which climax processes and associated osteoporosis are associated.

Replacement therapy with sex hormones, which was widely used at one time in developed countries, sharply reduced the severity of osteoporosis in women, alleviating the symptoms of menopause.

However, the side effects caused by the increased incidence of tumors led to the need to drastically limit such therapy.

This indicates that the body is aging as an integral system and influences individual mechanisms has either a small effect or even leads to pathology. Indeed, an increase in cell growth against the background of reduced immunity will only lead to an increase in the frequency of tumors.