Aging & Longevity

CONCLUSIONS: Our study offers a new understanding of how the community environment may influence older people's support behaviors. Findings suggest that social cohesion and social belonging play distinct roles in relation to support provision among older people. Practices aimed at facilitating mutual support and well-being may need to take specific roles of different dimensions of community environment into account.

The intestine is one of the first organs to show signs of aging, including cellular changes, microbiota shifts, and reduced regenerative capacity. The different components of the gut-such as the epithelium (which is directly exposed to a diverse array of host-microbe interactions), the microbiota itself, and the underlying enteric nervous system-likely contribute to aging in distinct ways. Understanding their individual and interactive roles is key to elucidating the mechanisms of intestinal...

CONCLUSIONS: Heterogeneity among the homebound older adult population shapes care needs that in turn influence utilization patterns. Understanding these dynamics is crucial to targeting interventions like home-based primary care to the highest risk groups while tailoring care to individual needs.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1476909.].

Sexuality in older age remains a taboo subject. Little is known about the perceptions and experiences of healthcare professionals when addressing this topic with older adults. This systematic review, registered in PROSPERO, aims to understand the perceptions, practices, and recommendations of healthcare professionals in primary and hospital care regarding the approach to sexuality and sexual health in older people. The 17 selected studies, conducted in six countries, show that physicians and...

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Although HCBS availability varies across sites and regions, veterans' access also depends on VA staff time to conduct outreach, foster collaborations, and coordinate HCBS with internal and external partners. Understanding and disseminating effective strategies to strengthen veterans' HCBS access is vital as the need for HCBS continues to grow nationally.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Clinical complexity, disability, and social vulnerabilities were associated with greater volumes of skilled home health provision from nurses and therapists from 2011 to 2015. Our results highlight care needs that may be underaddressed and inequities that may be exacerbated under current home health provisions.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: This study demonstrates that even a single fall can signal a significant shift in the health and functional trajectories of community-dwelling older people, reinforcing the need for proactive and coordinated prevention strategies.

There is great interest in characterizing the activities or lifestyle factors that are important for successful aging; nevertheless, rigorous investigations using multimodal neuroimaging measures in conjunction with validated measures of activities are underrepresented in the literature. To address this gap, we assessed whether engagement in complex mental activities across early, middle, and late life, is associated with metrics of brain health in a sample of cognitively unimpaired older adults...

Neural plasticity and memory mechanisms progressively change during pathological aging. This study aimed to identify patterns of structural covariance across Alzheimer's disease (AD) stages and their relationship with episodic memory performance. Fifty-nine AD patients, 59 patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (a-MCI), 46 individuals with Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD), and 49 Healthy Controls (HC) underwent neuropsychological assessment, including verbal episodic memory tests...

Hematopoietic stem cells integrate local and systemic cues to sustain blood homeostasis. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Tian et al.¹ uncover a stress-responsive brain-gut-bone marrow axis that drives aging-like dysfunction of hematopoietic stem cells.

Chronic stress influences hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). However, how psychological stress regulates HSC function remains incompletely understood. Here, we show that psychological stress impairs HSC self-renewal and lymphoid differentiation, inducing aging-like phenotypes. Stress suppresses neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and periaqueductal gray (PAG), leading to HSC dysfunction, whereas chemogenetic activation of these regions restores HSC function. Psychological...

Atherosclerosis imposes a heavy burden on global healthcare systems and remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide, with macrophage dysfunction playing a critical role in its pathogenesis. This review examines the dual roles of macrophage senescence and programmed cell death (PCD) in the progression of atherosclerosis, highlighting their mechanisms, cross-talk and emerging therapeutic strategies. Macrophage senescence-characterized by irreversible cell cycle arrest, mitochondrial...

Oceanic trench bending over 1000 km occurs globally, with notable along-trench variations in mantle wedge thermochemistry. However, the mechanisms influencing both shallow trench geometry and deep mantle state remain unclear. Here we focus on the Mariana Trench as a representative case. Our 3D model successfully replicates its curved geometry. Modeling results further reveal that extensive intra-oceanic trench retreat and bending occur when the incoming plate features sharp density variations...

Perturbations in lysosome integrity are tightly linked to neurological disorders and ageing, but the underlying pathogenic mechanisms are incompletely understood. Using an unbiased proteomic approach, we here identified the bridge-like lipid transport protein VPS13C/PARK23 as a key component of a global early response pathway to lysosome damage. VPS13C readily binds lysosomes under mechanical or osmotic tension in anticipation of membrane lesions. The latter trigger a conformational change in...

Recent studies have highlighted the crucial role of mechanical properties in the ovarian microenvironment for ovarian function. However, the mechanisms that cause ovarian matrix stiffening during aging remain incompletely understood. Here we utilized atomic force microscopy (AFM) to demonstrate that human ovarian matrix stiffness increases with aging and in pathophysiological conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and...

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The d emographic shift toward an older population is accelerating the prevalence of age-related diseases. Precision geromedicine represents a paradigm shift in targeting the biological processes of ageing to optimise health and healthspan, which likely requires multimodal tailored interventions. PROMETHEUS, as part of the XPRIZE healthspan semi-finalist competition, is an 8-week feasibility and exploratory study including 20 middle-aged-to-older participants who received a multimodal...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003306.].