Biology of Aging. - book reviews

Age and Ageing, May, 1993 by Leonid Gavrilov

Edited by Robert Zwilling and Cesare Balduini Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1992. 169 pp. Price 35.00[pounds] (paperback).

This small book contains 16 short papers presented by 48 contributors at the German-Italian symposium |Biology of Aging', held in Italy in 1990, as a result of co-operation between the Universities of Heidelberg and Pavia.

Among the authors of 16 chapters (eight each from participants from Heidelberg and from Pavia) are such notable gerontologists as S. Hoyer and K. Beyreuther. The opening chapter by R. Zwilling reviews current theories of ageing and is an introduction to this complex field. Other chapters deal with age-related processes in different biological systems and at different levels of organization. Much attention is paid to ageing of the nervous system, which is considered both with respect to its biochemical and physiological implications, as well as to the age-related pathological alterations (Alzheimer disease). While many papers focus on the age-dependent changes in DNA, protein, membranes, and cell organelles, the ageing of connective tissue is also discussed, with attention being particularly paid to atherosclerotic degeneration. The book closes with a consideration of the fundamental role of genetic control in the ageing process of the Ascomycete Podospora anserina (H. D. Osiewacz).

This book illustrates excellently that some general unifying ideas are necessary now for the further progress of gerontology.