Pathophysiology of ageing, longevity and age related diseases

Alexander Bürkle¹ , Graziella Caselli² , Claudio Franceschi³ , Erminia Mariani⁴^,5 , Paolo Sansoni⁶ , Angela Santoni⁷ , Giancarlo Vecchio⁸ , Jacek M Witkowski⁹ and Calogero Caruso¹⁰

¹Department of Biology, Box X911, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

²Department of Demographic Sciences, University "La Sapienza" of Rome, Rome, Italy

³Department of Experimental Pathology and CIG – Interdepartmental Center "L. Galvani", University of Bologna, Italy

⁴Immunology and Genetics Laboratory, Institute Codivilla-Putti, Bologna, Italy

⁵Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology of University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

⁶Department of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy

⁷Department of Experimental Medicine, University "La Sapienza" of Rome, Rome, Italy

⁸Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology and Pathology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

⁹Department of Pathophysiology, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland

¹⁰Immunosenescence Unit, Department of Pathobiology and Biomedical Methodologies, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

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Immunity & Ageing 2007, 4:4doi:10.1186/1742-4933-4-4


Published:	2 August 2007

Abstract

On April 18, 2007 an international meeting on Pathophysiology of Ageing, Longevity and Age-Related Diseases was held in Palermo, Italy. Several interesting topics on Cancer, Immunosenescence, Age-related inflammatory diseases and longevity were discussed. In this report we summarize the most important issues. However, ageing must be considered an unavoidable end point of the life history of each individual, nevertheless the increasing knowledge on ageing mechanisms, allows envisaging many different strategies to cope with, and delay it. So, a better understanding of pathophysiology of ageing and age-related disease is essential for giving everybody a reasonable chance for living a long and enjoyable final part of the life.