Abstract
Research on ageing has developed since Greek times. It had a very slow advance during the Middle Ages and a big increase in the Renaissance. Darwin contributed somehow to the understanding of the ageing process and initiated a cumulus of ageing explications under the name of Evolutionary Theories. Subsequently, science discovered a great number of genes, molecules, and cell processes that intervened in ageing. This led to the beginning of trials in animals to retard or avoid the ageing process. Alongside this, improvements, geriatric clinical investigations (with the evidence-based medicine tools) started to consolidate as a discipline and commenced to show the challenges and deficiencies of actual clinical trials in ageing; the COVID-19 outbreak revealed some of them. The history of clinical research in ageing has already begun and is essential to affront the challenges that the world will face with the increasing ageing population.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Binstock RH (2004) Anti-ageing medicine and research: a realm of conflict and profound societal implications. J Gerontol 59(6):523–533. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/59.6.b523
Campisi J, Kapahi P, Lithgow GJ, Melov S, Newman JC, Verdin E (2019) From discoveries in ageing research to therapeutics for healthy ageing. Nature 571(7764):183–192. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1365-2
Fabian D, Flatt T (2011) The evolution of ageing. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-evolution-of-ageing-23651151/. Accessed 20 May 2022
Faes M, Van Iersel M, Rikkert MO (2007) Methodological issues in geriatric research. J Nutr Health Ageing 11(3):254–259
Fontana L, Kennedy B, Longo V, Seals D, Melov S (2014) Medical research: treat ageing. Nature 511:405–407. https://doi.org/10.1038/511405a
García C, Gutiérrez LM, Pérez MA (eds) (2018) Ageing research- methodological issues, 2nd edn. Springer, Switzerland
Gardette V, Coley N, Toulza O, Andrieu S (2007) Attrition in geriatric research: how important is it and how should it be dealt with? J Nutr Health Ageing 11(3):265–271
Gilleard C (2002) Ageing and old age in medieval society and the transition of modernity. J Ageing Identity 7(1):25–41. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014358415896
Gilleard C (2013) Renaissance treatises on ‘successful ageing’. Ageing Soc 33(2):1–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X11001127
Goldsmith TC (2017) Evolvability, population benefit, and the evolution of programmed ageing in mammals. Biochemistry 82(12):1423–1429. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006297917120021
Guyatt GH (1991) Evidence-based medicine. Am Coll Physicians J 114(2):A16. https://doi.org/10.7326/ACPJC-1991-114-2-A16
Hayflick L (2004) “Anti-ageing” is an oxymoron. J Gerontol Biol Sci 59(6):576–578. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/59.6.b573
Kaeberlein M, Tyler J (2021) A new era for research into ageing. eLife 10:e65286. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65286
Kirkwood T, Austad S (2000) Why do we age? Nature 9408(6809):233–238. https://doi.org/10.1038/35041682
López C, Blasco MA, Partridge L, Serrano M, Kroemer G (2013) The hallmarks of ageing. Cell 153(6):1194–1217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.0392013
Medawar PB (1957) The uniqueness of the individual, 1st edn. Routledge, London
Mooijaart SP, Broekhuizen K, Trompet S, de Craen AJ, Gussekloo J, Oleksik A, van Heemst D, Blauw GJ, Muller M (2015) Evidence-based medicine in older patients: how can we do better? Neth J Med 73(5):211–218
Morley JE (2004) A brief history of geriatrics. J Gerontol 59(11):1132–1152. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/59.11.1132
Nascher L (1914) Geriatrics; the diseases of old age and their treatment: including physiological old age, home and institutional care, and medico-legal relations, 1st edn. University of California, California
Omran AR (1971) The epidemiologic transition: theory of the epidemiology of population change. Milbank Mem Fund Q 49(4):509–538
Scarre G (2016) The Palgrave handbook of the philosophy of ageing, 1st edn. Palgrave Macmillan, London
Shahar S (1993) Who were old in the middle ages? Soc Hist Med 6(3):313–341. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/6.3.313
Sierra F (2019) Geroscience and the challenges of ageing societies. Ageing Med 2(3):132–134. https://doi.org/10.1002/agm2.12082
Sierra F, Caspi A, Fortinsky RH, Haynes L, Gordon I, Lithgow J, Moffitt TE, Olshansky S, Perry D, Verdin E, Kuchel GA (2021) Moving geroscience from the bench to clinical care and health policy. J Am Geriatr Soc 69(9):2455–2463. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17301
Tan EC, Sluggett JK, Johnell K, Onder G, Elseviers M, Morin L, Vetrano DL, Wastesson JW, Fastbom J, Taipale H, Tanskanen A, Bell JS (2018) Research priorities for optimizing geriatric pharmacotherapy: an international consensus. J Am Med Dir Assoc 19(3):193–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2017.12.002
Todd O, Burton JK, Doods RM, Hollinghurst J, Lyons RA, Quinn TJ, Schneider A, Walesby KE, Wilkinson C, Conroy S, Gale CP, Hall M, Walters K, Clegg PC (2020) New horizons in the use of routine data for ageing research. Age Ageing 49:716–722. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa018
United Nations (2015) World population prospects - 2015. Key findings and advance tables. United Nations, New York
Weintrob G (2022) History of ageing research. https://www.research.colostate.edu/healthyageingcenter/2022/02/21/history-of-ageing-research/. Accessed 20 May 2022
Williams GC (1957) Pleiotropy, natural selection, and the evolution of senescence. Evolution 11:398–411. https://doi.org/10.2307/2406060
Witham MD, Gordon A, Henderson E, Harwood H (2021) Pandemic research for older people: doing it better next time. Age Ageing 50(2):276–278. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa273
Woodcox A (2018) Aristotle’s theory of ageing. https://journals.openedition.org/etudesanciennes/1040. Accessed 21 May 2022
Zainabadi K (2018) A brief history of modern ageing research. Exp Gerontol 104:35–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2018.01.018
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
García-Peña, C., Tella-Vega, P., Medina-Campos, R.H., García-Hernández, H. (2023). Introduction: Historical Development and Progression of Clinical Research on Ageing. In: Harris, J.R., Korolchuk, V.I. (eds) Biochemistry and Cell Biology of Ageing: Part IV, Clinical Science. Subcellular Biochemistry, vol 103. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26576-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26576-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-26575-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-26576-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)