Approach to a model of the aging phenomenon

Abstract

Numerous physiological theories of aging have been proposed; most of them approach the problem in an essentially local manner, stressing the role of a particular factor intervening at a certain level and the resulting pathological consequences. But they do not allow for a combination of the different phenomena observed in the aging process. This paper proposes a more unified and global approach to this process. It is presented in the frame of a mathematical model for complex systems with a hierarchy of internal regulation centers (CR), developed by the authors in preceding papers; the dynamics of such a system depends on a dialectics between these CRs due to their different complexity level and different timescales. Aging for an organism is described as a consequence of this dialectics, that progressively triggers a "cascade of de/resynchronizations" between the CRs, resulting from the reduction in stability of complex components (increase in turnover or acceleration of degradation) and the increase in transmission delays for functioning and repair. This temporal imbalance comes from the interplay between external stochastic disturbances and more or less predetermined sub-systems with limited capacities for repair.