Evidence for senescent convergence during human aging

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Biometrics
• Aging Research

Background:

• Senescent convergence describes how physiological measurements converge towards the mean with advanced age.
• This pattern is observed across various organ/body size, chemistry, and function metrics.
• Understanding this convergence is crucial for aging research and healthspan studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define and illustrate the concept of senescent convergence.
• To explore mathematical models that incorporate percentile-specific aging.
• To identify potential exceptions and related phenomena in aging.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of longitudinal data across multiple physiological parameters.
• Development and application of percentile-adjusted aging models.
• Calculation of 'age at convergence' for different measurement percentiles.

Main Results:

• Observed that higher percentiles of physiological measures decrease faster than lower percentiles with age.
• Demonstrated that senescent convergence can be mathematically modeled, including percentile terms.
• Identified specific conditions, such as osteoporotic fractures, as exceptions to this convergence.

Conclusions:

• Senescent convergence is a generalizable pattern in aging across diverse physiological measures.
• The inverse relationship to postnatal growth curves provides a developmental context.
• This concept offers a framework for understanding age-related physiological changes and identifying health anomalies.