The concept of biomarkers of aging and age-related disease began to appear in the gerontologic and geriatric literature in the early 1980s as investigators were wrestling with the disconnect between chronological age and lifespan across and within species. In those early days, the interest was in eliminating the confounding influence of disease from research on aging so that biomarkers of underlying processes of aging could be developed (Ludwig & Smoke, 1981; Reff & Schneider, 1982; Sprott & Schneider, 1985). The question of what was aging and what was disease was at the core of the development of scientific legitimacy for the young science of aging. A key question then (and in some places now) was whether aging and disease were separate entities or aging was simply the end result (sum of damage) of a lifetime of disease. Adherents of the "aging is disease" view held that biomarkers of aging, separate from disease were not possible. Adherents of the "aging is the result of basic underlying processes" argued that aging research needed to be conducted with disease free subjects (human and lower animal) in order to be valid. Biomarkers of aging would then be markers of the progress of these underlying processes.
Exp Gerontol. 2009 Jul 31
Biomarkers of Aging and Disease: Introduction and Definitions.
Sprott RL