specialty focus
A strawberry a day
An emerging science aims to intervene in the ageing process .
By Elise Hartevelt
Eating 500 grams of strawberries , equal to 2.5 cups , every day might be one way to stave off age-related diseases , according to an exciting field called cellular senescence .
The science study ’ s ‘ senescent ’ cells , which have been found to have a negative effect on other healthy cells and have been associated with many age-related conditions like heart failure .
Professor Andrea Maier from the University of Melbourne , who has been working in the field for over 20 years , believes the budding field is very promising .
“ We are interfering with the ageing process before any age-related diseases start knocking on the door ,” she said .
“ There are already supplements on the market that can help reduce the number of senescent cells in the body . We ’ re also
22 agedcareinsite . com . au looking at how nutrition , like strawberries , can play a role .”
Aged Care Insite spoke with Maier about how cellular senescence might hold the key to unlocking the secrets of living a long and healthy life .
ACI : Could you tell us a bit about what cellular senescence is ? AM : Cellular senescence is a programme in cells where a cell is not able to divide anymore , but I think we first have to see it in a different context . With the chronological age , we are accumulating damage . So while we are ageing , we are ageing at this moment in time , we are accumulating damage . And while accumulating damage , we are less likely to be able to maintain our bodily functions , and that gives us a high risk of accumulating age related diseases , such as cancer or heart failure or lung failure . And in the end , because of these age-related diseases , most of the individuals are going to die . So therefore , the chronological ageing effect on death is much more prominent . In the last 20 years , we discovered why we age , and cellular senescence is one part of it , but only one part of roughly nine to 12 hallmarks of ageing .
Why do people call senescent cells ‘ zombie cells ’? If a cell is not dividing anymore because that cell had too much damage , that cell can either stay in the body and then become a senescent cell or that cell can decide , ‘ hey , I don ’ t want to be in there anymore ’ and undergo something called apoptosis . It ’ s a little bit like a suicide of that cell . Most of the times in all their age , we see that that suicide of a cell is much less prominent compared to younger ages , which means that at all their age , these zombie cells or senescent cells are accumulating across the body . And what does that mean ? That means that we have much more zombie cells with chronological age in our lungs , in our heart , in our brain , in our kidneys . And while these senescent cells