This book focuses on four of the hallmarks of aging: aspartic acid racemization, advanced glycation end products, telomere shortening and mitochondrial mutations; describing their role in aging and diseases; and their application to age-at-death estimation in forensic sciences in greater depth, displaying the interconnecting pathways among these processes. An additional chapter related to Epigenetics and its role in aging, diseases, and forensic age estimation is also included. This book is aimed at a broad audience: from students being introduced to aging, diseases, and forensic science research to scientists in biomedicine and forensics complementing their knowledge in their respective fields while also increasing their knowledge in other disciplines.

Table of Contents

ASPARTIC ACID RACEMIZATION

Introduction to Aspartic Acid Racemization

Christian Thomas and Sara C. Zapico

Aspartic Acid Racemization on Aging

Sara C. Zapico, Christian Thomas and Sofía Tirados Menéndez

Aspartic Acid Racemization and Aging in Cartilaginous Tissue

Sarit Sara Sivan, Alice Maroudas and Ellen Wachtel

Racemization and Isomerization of Aspartyl Residues in Amyloid Peptides Involved in the Development of Alzheimer s Disease

Koichi Inoue and Toshimasa Toyo'oka

Aspartic Acid Racemization: Applications to Forensic and Archaeological Age Estimation

Rebecca C. Griffin and Matthew Collins

ADVANCED GLYCATION ENDPRODUCTS

Advanced Glycation Endproducts: An Introduction

Andreas Simm and Alexander Navarrete Santos

Advanced Glycation and Aging

Alejandro Gugliucci

AGE-RAGE Axis in the Aging and Diabetic Heart: Prime Target for Adjunctive Therapeutic Intervention

Karen M. O'Shea, Ann Marie Schmidt and Ravichandran Ramasamy

Advanced Glycation Endproducts in Aging Skin

Paraskevi Gkogkolou and Markus Böhm

Advanced Glycation Endproducts and Neurological Diseases

Teresita Menini

Advanced Glycation Endproducts for Age at Death Estimation

Luis L. Cabo, Christian Thomas and Sara C. Zapico

TELOMERES

Introduction to Telomere Biology

Celia de Frutos and Pablo Bermejo-Álvarez

Role of Telomeres in Aging

Christian Thomas and Sara C. Zapico

Telomeres and Cardiovascular Disease: Facts, Controversies and Limitations

Vicente Andrés, Beatriz Dorado and Ioakim Spyridopoulos

Telomeres in Cancer

Jo o Vinagre, Ana Pestana, Manuel Sobrinho-Sim es and Paula Soares

Forensic Application of Telomere Shortening in Age-at-death Estimation

Joe Adserias-Garriga

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA MUTATIONS

Introduction to Mitochondria Biology

Christian Thomas and Sara C. Zapico

Mitochondrial DNA Mutations and Aging

Rebecca Stone Gordon and Sara C. Zapico

Mitochondrial DNA Mutations and Mitochondrial Diseases

María Elena Gómez-Gómez

Reproductive Approaches to Prevent the Transmission of Mitochondrial Diseases

María Jesús Sánchez-Calabuig, Noelia Fonseca Balvís, Serafín Pérez-Cerezales and Pablo Bermejo-Álvarez

Mitochondrial DNA Mutations and Neurodegenerative Diseases

Paula Núñez

An Overview of mtDNA Analysis for Age-at-death Estimation in Forensic Sciences

Silvia Zoppis

EPIGENETICS

Epigenetics: Its Role in Aging, Diseases and Biological Age Estimation

Christian Thomas and Sara C. Zapico