Multi-Parameter Analysis of Biobanked Human Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Shows Little Influence for Donor Age and Mild Comorbidities on Phenotypic and Functional Properties

Heterogeneous populations of human bone marrow-derived stromal cells (BMSC) are among the most frequently tested cellular therapeutics for treating degenerative and immune disorders, which occur predominantly in the aging population. Currently, it is unclear whether advanced donor age and commonly associated comorbidities affect the properties of ex vivo-expanded BMSCs. Thus, we stratified cells from adult and elderly donors from our biobank (n = 10 and n = 13, mean age 38 and 72 years, respectively) and compared their phenotypic and functional performance, using multiple assays typically employed as minimal criteria for defining multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). We found that BMSCs from both cohorts meet the standard criteria for MSC, exhibiting similar morphology, growth kinetics, gene expression profiles, and pro-angiogenic and immunosuppressive potential and the capacity to differentiate toward adipogenic, chondrogenic, and osteogenic lineages. We found no substantial differences between cells from the adult and elderly cohorts. As positive controls, we studied the impact of in vitro aging and inflammatory cytokine stimulation. Both conditions clearly affected the cellular properties, independent of donor age. We conclude that in vitro aging rather than in vivo donor aging influences BMSC characteristics

Aging, Retirement and Human Resources Management: A Strategic Approach

This chapter introduces the organizational view of retirement by exploring the relationship between organizational strategy and human resource management decisions regarding retirement. The authors begin with an overview of organizational strategy and discuss two methods used to plan for an aging and retiring workforce. Several key human resource decisions related to retirement are then addressed. In the pre-retirement phase, the role of HR In helping employees to prepare for retirement Is discussed, focusing primarily on financial planning and other retirement-related benefits. Next, human resource decisions pertaining to managing a retirement-ready workforce are discussed, addressing specifically the issues of knowledge transfer and motivating performance. Finally, interactions with individuals after retirement are discussed by looking at recruitment and bridge employment

Workforce Aging in Production Systems: Modeling and Performance Evaluation

AbstractHuman factor is considered as a cost effective alternative to expensive automated solutions, as well as an easily interchangeable high flexible resource. However, for many years the influence of human behavior on production system performance has been underestimated and a lot of unrealistic assumptions have been used to simplify the human component modeling.Nowadays, population aging is acknowledged as a global trend. Among individual factors impacting on workers’ performance, high attention is being paid to the age from scientific community, policy-makers and business leaders.The aim of this paper is to provide some highlights about the main scientific literature findings, regarding aging effects, in a quickly consultable and synthetic form; the elements characterizing human performance could then be included in models and ergonomic evaluation tools.In the initial part of the paper, demographic aspects and their implications on workforce composition are illustrated; successively, a state of the art of human behavior modeling is provided and main findings on age-related performance characteristics are summarized

Neural differentiation is moderated by age in scene- but not face-selective cortical regions

The aging brain is characterized by neural dedifferentiation, an apparent decrease in the functional selectivity of category-selective cortical regions. Age-related reductions in neural differentiation have been proposed to play a causal role in cognitive aging. Recent findings suggest, however, that age-related dedifferentiation is not equally evident for all stimulus categories and, additionally, that the relationship between neural differentiation and cognitive performance is not moderated by age. In light of these findings, in the present experiment, younger and older human adults (males and females) underwent fMRI as they studied words paired with images of scenes or faces before a subsequent memory task. Neural selectivity was measured in two scene-selective (parahippocampal place area (PPA) and retrosplenial cortex (RSC)] and two face-selective [fusiform face area (FFA) and occipital face area (OFA)] regions using both a univariate differentiation index and multivoxel pattern similarity analysis. Both methods provided highly convergent results, which revealed evidence of age-related reductions in neural dedifferentiation in scene-selective but not face-selective cortical regions. Additionally, neural differentiation in the PPA demonstrated a positive, age-invariant relationship with subsequent source memory performance (recall of the image category paired with each recognized test word). These findings extend prior findings suggesting that age-related neural dedifferentiation is not a ubiquitous phenomenon, and that the specificity of neural responses to scenes is predictive of subsequent memory performance independently of age

The Impact of Aging on Brain Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase Activating Polypeptide Pathology and Cognition in Mice and Rhesus Macaques

Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) is associated with Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD), but its age-related effects are unknown. We chose the rhesus macaque due to its closeness to human anatomy and physiology. We examined four variables: aging, cognitive performance, amyloid plaques and PACAP. Delayed nonmatching-to-sample recognition memory scores declined with age and correlated with PACAP levels in the striatum, parietal and temporal lobes. Because amyloid plaques were the only AD pathology in the old rhesus macaque, we further studied human amyloid precursor protein (hAPP) transgenic mice. Aging was associated with decreased performance in the Morris Water Maze (MWM). In wild type (WT) C57BL/6 mice, the performance was decreased at age 24-26 month whereas in hAPP transgenic mice, it was decreased as early as 9-12 month. Neuritic plaques in adult hAPP mice clustered in hippocampus and adjacent cortical regions, but did not propagate further into the frontal cortex. Cerebral PACAP protein levels were reduced in hAPP mice compared to age-matched WT mice, but the genetic predisposition dominated cognitive decline. Taken together, these data suggest an association among PACAP levels, aging, cognitive function and amyloid load in nonhuman primates, with both similarities and differences from human AD brains. Our results suggest caution in choosing animal models and in extrapolating data to human AD studies

Development of a user-adaptable human fall detection based on fall risk levels using depth sensor

Unintentional falls are a major public health concern for many communities, especially with aging populations. There are various approaches used to classify human activities for fall detection. Related studies have employed wearable, non-invasive sensors, video cameras and depth sensor-based approaches to develop such monitoring systems. The proposed approach in this study uses a depth sensor and employs a unique procedure which identifies the fall risk levels to adapt the algorithm for different people with their physical strength to withstand falls. The inclusion of the fall risk level identification, further enhanced and improved the accuracy of the fall detection. The experimental results showed promising performance in adapting the algorithm for people with different fall risk levels for fall detection

Gut microbiota and probiotics as palliative care which supports physical activity in geriatric health / Microbiota e probiotic gut como cuidado paliativo que apoia a atividade física na saúde geriátrica

Physical activity is considered a significant factor in the anti-aging process. In this sense, there is increasing scientific and clinical interest in the connections of nutrition and health as part of the aging progression. Studies have shown that there is an association between aging problems and gut microbiota performance. We performed this narrative review used the following databases: PubMed, Web of Science and Medline. The research was performed using the following keywords: [[[Aging] or [Senescence] or [Biological Aging] or [Aging, Biological] or [Aged] or [Aged, 80 and over] or [Life Expectancy] or [Length of Life]] in combination with [[microbiota] or [microbiotas] or [Microbiome] or [microbiomes] or [Human Microbiome] or [Human microbiomes] or [microbiomes, Human] or [Microbiome, Human]] not [[disease]]]. We selected analyzed 35 studies after search. The main results indicated that, associating care with the microbiota and physical activity practices in older adults can increase their chances of longevity. A lower prevalence of Bifidobacteria increase the chance of gastrointestinal infection with lower intestinal protection. The immunomodulatory properties of probiotics increase the prevention of infectious disease-related morbidity and mortality in older adults. There is still no research on the impact of the association between the care of the microbiota in older adults practicing physical activity. This review has the potential to save geriatric therapists time by providing comprehensive summaries of large information regarding the probiotics associated with physical practices used in palliative care in geriatric health

Touchscreen-based cognitive tasks reveal age-related impairment in a primate aging model, the grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus)

Mouse lemurs are suggested to represent promising novel non-human primate models for aging research. However, standardized and cross-taxa cognitive testing methods are still lacking. Touchscreen-based testing procedures have proven high stimulus control and reliability in humans and rodents. The aim of this study was to adapt these procedures to mouse lemurs, thereby exploring the effect of age. We measured appetitive learning and cognitive flexibility of two age groups by applying pairwise visual discrimination (PD) and reversal learning (PDR) tasks. On average, mouse lemurs needed 24 days of training before starting with the PD task. Individual performances in PD and PDR tasks correlate significantly, suggesting that individual learning performance is unrelated to the respective task. Compared to the young, aged mouse lemurs showed impairments in both PD and PDR tasks. They needed significantly more trials to reach the task criteria. A much higher inter-individual variation in old than in young adults was revealed. Furthermore, in the PDR task, we found a significantly higher perseverance in aged compared to young adults, indicating an age-related deficit in cognitive flexibility. This study presents the first touchscreen-based data on the cognitive skills and age-related dysfunction in mouse lemurs and provides a unique basis to study mechanisms of inter-individual variation. It furthermore opens exciting perspectives for comparative approaches in aging, personality, and evolutionary research

Aging without functional senescence in honey bee workers

Senescence can be defined demographically as an age- dependent increase in mortality risk, or functionally as a decline in performance. The relationship between the two phenomena is central for understanding the biological aging process and the implications of human lifespan extension [1 ]. Generally, demographic and functional senescence are believed to be tightly linked [1], because aging involves a performance decline in multiple body functions, leading to increased mortality. The limited existing data support a direct connection between old age, increased mortality rate and decreased behavioral or physiological performance in organisms ranging from flies [2] to humans [3]. A recent study [4], however, suggests that the linkage may be less universal than previously postulated. To investigate this linkage directly in the non-traditional aging model Apis mellifera [5], old honey bee workers were studied with respect to survival and performance. A test battery of behavioral assays showed a significant increase in experimental mortality rate with chronological age, but no evidence for an age-dependent performance decline in locomotion, learning or responsiveness to light or sucrose. The explanation for this decoupling of intrinsic mortality and functional decline may lie in the social evolution of honey bees [6]