Sex and Aging

Extract

Women have longer lifespans than men in all populations (1) and this has been attributed to various factors such as lifestyle, hormones, or asymmetry in the inheritance of mitochondrial DNA and chromosomes (2). Despite their longer lifespans, women tend to have longer periods of frailty and disability, the so-called “male-female health-survival paradox” (3) which suggests that sex influences the relationship between the deleterious effects of aging and lifespan in humans. In animal experiments, sex influences the rate of aging and the responses to many antiaging interventions including dietary restriction, genetic manipulation and pharmaceutical agents (2,4). Yet as pointed out by Pomatto et al. in this issue (5), only 22–42% of all aging studies report the sex of the animals used, and even less report the sex of cell lines. Regardless of the profound effects of sex on aging, it seems that biogerontologists have yet to fully embrace research into the effects of sex on the aging process. Therefore in this special issue of the Journal of Gerontology Biological Sciences, we have published a series of review and research articles that explore the relationship between sex and aging in animals and humans.