Table of Contents
Preface 9
Chapter 1 What is ageing? 15
Chapter 2 Wear and tear? 29
Chapter 3 Telomeres - measuring the lifetime of cells 39
Chapter 4 Cell senescence - down but not out 51
Chapter 5 Old before their time 65
Chapter 6 Ming the Mollusc and other models 77
Chapter 7 It's in the genes 91
Chapter 8 Eat less, live longer? 107
Chapter 9 The immune system - first responders 119
Chapter 10 The immune system - the specialists take over 127
Chapter 11 The bugs fight back 133
Chapter 12 HIV/AIDS - adding insult to injury 139
Chapter 13 Epigenetics and chronology - the two faces of time 149
Chapter 14 Stem cells - back to fundamentals 157
Chapter 15 Something in the blood? 167
Chapter 16 The broken brain 177
Chapter 17 Alzheimer's disease - the family that led the way 187
Chapter 18 Alzheimer's disease - a challenge to amyloid 197
Chapter 19 It's the environment, stupid 209
Chapter 20 Treat the person, not the disease 223
Chapter 21 Ageing research - from the lab into our lives 233
Notes on sources 247
Acknowledgements 263
Index 265