Gerontological research is currently of great interest due to ever-increasing longevity of human life spans. Created to provide researchers and scientists with the technical methods essential to their work, Methods in Aging Research is a practical bench-top guide for everyone who plans, designs, or conducts research in aging. It highlights experimental procedures that are key to the investigation of the biological aging phenomena.
Methods in Aging Research is a state-of-the-art reference that offers the most direct and clear cut descriptions available of methodological procedures used in aging research. Methods and protocols are critically evaluated and the advantages and disadvantages of each technique are explored. More than 70 expert contributors from around the world share their combined knowledge on a broad range of topics essential to everyone involved in cultivating and developing the gerontological research frontier.

This book focuses on the three most important aspects of ageing research: nutrition, physical exercise and epigenetics. The contributors discuss ways that age-related epigenetic imprints such as DNA methylation and histone acetylation are modified by these two interventions. The emphasis on epigenetics helps to illuminate the underlying mechanisms of anti-ageing interventions, as ageing and disease are predominately epigenetic phenomena. Among the highlights are chapter-length discussion of such topics as: how anti-inflammatory action of calorie restriction underlies the retardation of ageing and age-related diseases (Chapter 3); epigenetic modification of gene expression by exercise (Chapter 5); the role of functional foods and their bioactive components in bone health (Chapter 8); and an account of the first decade of a study of calorie restriction in nonhuman primates, conducted by the National Institute on Ageing.