Hallmarks of Aging

Altered intercellular communication is an aging hallmark in which cell signaling degrades, driving chronic inflammation and tissue dysfunction across the body.

Cellular senescence occurs when damaged cells stop dividing but refuse to die, releasing inflammatory signals that accelerate aging and disease.

Chronic inflammation is a persistent, low-grade immune activation that drives aging and disease. Learn how it works, what fuels it, and how to measure it.

Deregulated nutrient sensing describes how aging cells lose the ability to respond properly to food signals, driving metabolic decline and age-related disease.

Disabled macroautophagy is the age-related decline in cellular self-digestion, allowing damaged proteins and organelles to accumulate and drive disease.

Dysbiosis, an imbalance in gut microbial communities, is now recognized as a hallmark of aging linked to inflammation, immune decline, and metabolic dysfunction.

Genomic instability is the accumulation of DNA damage over a lifetime, driving aging and disease. Learn the mechanisms, repair pathways, and what influences the rate of damage.

Geroscience studies the biological mechanisms of aging to delay or prevent age-related diseases simultaneously, rather than treating each disease in isolation.

Glycation produces advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) that stiffen tissues, drive inflammation, and accelerate aging. Mechanisms, markers, and practical steps.

Inflammaging describes the low-grade, chronic inflammation that accelerates biological aging, driving disease risk across every organ system.

Loss of proteostasis describes the age-related decline in protein folding and recycling that drives cellular dysfunction, neurodegeneration, and tissue damage.

Mitochondrial dysfunction impairs cellular energy production and accelerates aging. Learn the mechanisms, biomarkers, and interventions that address it.

Oxidative stress occurs when reactive oxygen species overwhelm cellular antioxidant defenses, driving aging and disease. Learn the mechanisms, markers, and interventions.

Stem cell exhaustion is the age-related decline in tissue repair capacity. Learn the mechanisms behind it, how it connects to other hallmarks, and what the evidence says.

Telomere attrition is the gradual shortening of protective chromosome caps with each cell division, driving cellular aging, senescence, and tissue decline.

The hallmarks of aging framework identifies 12 biological processes that drive aging, from genomic instability to chronic inflammation, and how they connect.