Once it was thought that aging was just a random and haphazard process. Instead, the rate of aging turns out to be subject to regulation by transcription factors that respond to hormones and other signals. In the nematode C. elegans, in which many key discoveries about aging were first made, the aging process is subject to regulation by food intake, sensory perception, and signals from the reproductive system. Changing genes and cells that affect aging can lengthen lifespan by six fold, and...

What does it mean to age successfully? After all, aren’t we accomplishing this just by being alive? The term "successful aging" is vague and leaves much to the imagination. Yet, there is a growing interest in this topic. UCSD’s Stein Institute for Research on Aging has embarked on its own research project to discover the secrets to success. This presentation provides insights related to successful aging and discuss current research findings and proposed models.

The next 25 years will witness the largest-ever increase in our elderly population, especially those living an active life. Yet research on successful aging has lagged behind that of age-related diseases. Although successful aging involves both mental and physical health, new research suggests that the critical component of successful aging is related to brain and mind. Dr. Dilip Jeste shares the latest research and reviews some evidence-based strategies for successful aging.

The aging nervous system is known to manifest a variety of degenerative and regressive events. Here we report the unexpected growth of dendrites in the retinas of normal old mice. The dendrites of many rod bipolar cells in aging mice were observed to extend well beyond their normal strata within the outer plexiform layer to innervate the outer nuclear layer where they appeared to form contacts with the spherules of rod photoreceptors. Such dendritic sprouting increased with age and was...