An eye scanner that Boston University Medical School established can identify molecular aging in individuals. The brand-new technique supplies an accurate procedure of age-related damage and could, one day, play a role in routine clinical practice.
Everyone ages, but not in the same way. Two people of precisely the same age might be in very different states of health.
In other words, sequential age and biological age are various. While sequential age is extremely easy to measure, biological age is more hard to evaluate.
Although scientists know that there is broad variation in the processes of aging– for example, in the wear and tear of cells and tissues– amongst individuals, there is presently no universally accepted measure of biological aging.
In a brand-new research study that appears in The Journals of Gerontology: S e r i e s A, scientists led by Boston University Medical School describe a tool that could fill this space.
The researchers have developed a brand-new eye scanner that detects molecular signatures of aging in the lens and is entirely noninvasive. Doctors could utilize it clinically to examine an individual’s aging procedure and after that recommend individualized interventions.
The dearth of tools to examine aging properly puts a limitation on scientific understanding, senior author of the paper Dr. Lee E. Goldstein explains.
” The lack of clinical tools and metrics to quantitatively examine how each person is aging at the molecular level represents a significant impediment to understanding aging and making the most of health throughout life.”
To resolve this, Dr. Goldstein and a team of investigators from organizations including Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School sought to the eye.
The eyes are a great procedure of aging because they consist of cells that are produced in the fetus and not changed. This means that the cells that an individual is born with remain with them for life.
These cells are called primary fiber cells, and they occur in the lens, which focuses light onto the back of the eye. By the way, these cells also consist of the highest concentra