Scientists from the University of Arizona (USA) have found a mathematical explanation why it is impossible to defeat aging. The point is not in the error of evolution, but in the very structure of a multicellular organism, HiTech writes, citing the Science Daily.
"Aging is mathematically unavoidable, and it seems that at all," says Joanna Masel, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. His arguments together with colleague Paul Nelson, she outlined in a new study entitled "Intercellular competition and the inevitability of multicellular aging," published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A modern understanding of evolution suggests that aging can be won if science finds a way to make natural selection perfect. One way is to create competition between cells, within the framework of which the old, poorly functioning cells that just lead to aging. However, not everything is so simple, consider Masl and Nelson.
Nelson explains that at the cellular level during aging with the body, two things happen. First, the cells slow down and begin to lose their functions: for example, when the hair cells cease to release the pigment, and the gray. Secondly, some cells are able to play against the rules and, conversely, accelerate growth, which leads to the formation of cancer cells. All people tend to accumulate cancer cells with age, even without symptoms.
Oil and Nelson found that even if natural selection was perfect, aging is inevitable, since cancer cells tend to "deceive" the body during competition with conventional cells. "As you grow old, most of your cells lose their functions and stop growing," says Nelson. - But some of your cells grow like crazy. This forms a double dilemma, like "trick-22": if you get rid of the old cells, then cancer will start to thrive, if you get rid of cancer, then the body is filled with old cells. It is impossible to get rid of those and others at the same time ".
Although human mortality is an indisputable fact of life, the work of researchers is a mathematical equation that explains why aging is inevitable. According to Masl, people look at aging from the point of view of the inefficiency of evolution. We believe that this is not a matter of evolution at all.
Over time, all things break down and, according to mathematics, trying to fix them can worsen the situation.
"Perhaps you can slow down aging, but you can not stop it," says Masl.. - We have a mathematical demonstration of why it is impossible to solve both problems. You can fix one problem, but get stuck in another. Either your cells will become older, or you will have cancer. And the main reason is that everything inevitably breaks down ".
"This is what you have to deal with if you want to be a multicellular organism," says Nelson.