Maximum life span

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Maximum life span

Maximum life span is a measure of the maximum amount of time one or more members of a group has been observed to survive between birth and death.

nimal studies, maximum life span is often taken to be the mean life span of the most long-lived 10% of a given cohort

Cohort study

A cohort study or panel study is a form of longitudinal study used in medicine and social science. It is one type of study design and should be compared with a cross-sectional study....
. By another definition, however, maximum life span corresponds to the age at which the oldest known member of a species

Species

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Maximum life span is a measure of the maximum amount of time one or more members of a group has been observed to survive between birth and death.

Definition

In animal studies, maximum life span is often taken to be the mean life span of the most long-lived 10% of a given cohort

Cohort study

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
or experimental group has died. Calculation of the maximum life span in the former sense depends upon initial sample size.

Maximum life span is in contrast with mean life span (average life span or life expectancy
Life expectancy

Life expectancy is the average number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is the average expected lifespan of an individual. Life expectancy is heavily dependent on the criteria used to select the group....
). Mean life span varies with susceptibility to disease, accident

Accident

An accident is a specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external action which occurs in a particular time and place, without apparent or deliberate cause but with marked effects....
, suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the intentional taking of one's own life. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"....
and homicide

Murder

Murder as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide....
, whereas maximum life span is determined by "rate of aging".

In humans

The oldest recognized person

Oldest people

The following tables list only the verified oldest people in ordinal rank, such as oldest person or oldest man. A supercentenarian is considered "verified" if their claim has been accepted by an international body that specifically deals in longevity research, such as the Gerontology Research Group or the Guinness World Records....
on record is Jeanne Calment

Jeanne Calment

Jeanne Louise Calment was a French people with the oldest people in history at age 122 years 164 days . She lived in Arles, France, for her entire life, and outlived both her daughter and grandson....
, a French woman

French people

French people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law....
who lived for 122 years and 164 days. Maximum recorded life span for humans has remained about 105−122 calendar years throughout recorded history, despite steady improvements in life expectancy

Life expectancy

Life expectancy is the average number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is the average expected lifespan of an individual. Life expectancy is heavily dependent on the criteria used to select the group....
. Reduction of infant mortality has accounted for most of this increased average longevity

Longevity

The word longevity is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography. However, this is not the most popular or accepted definition....
, but since the 1960s mortality rate

Mortality rate

Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in some population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 in a population of 100,000 would mean 950 deaths per year in that entire population....
s among those over 80 years have decreased by about 1.5% per year. Advances in medicine, calorie restriction

Calorie restriction

Senescence

Senescence encompasses all of the biological processes of a living organism's approaching an advanced age . The word senescence is derived from the Latin word senex, meaning "old man" or "old age" or "advanced in age"....
. Although calorie restriction has not been proven to extend the maximum human life span, as of 2006, results in ongoing primate studies are promising.

Identical twin

Twin

Twins are two offspring resulting from the same pregnancy, usually childbirth in close succession. They can be the same or different sex. Twins can either be monozygotic or dizygotic ....
s tend to die within 3 years of each other , whereas fraternal twins tend to die within 6 years . Aging theories

Senescence

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
include programmed aging (or programmed aging-resistance) and theories that link aging with DNA damage/mutation or DNA repair

DNA repair

DNA repair refers to a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolism activities and environmental factors such as UV light and Radiation can cause DNA damage, resulting in as many as 1 million individual molecular lesions per cell pe...
capability.

In other animals

Small animals such as bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s and squirrel

Squirrel

File:Eichh?rnchen D?sseldorf Hofgarten edit.jpgA squirrel is one of many small or medium-sized rodents in the family Sciuridae. In the English language-speaking world, squirrel commonly refers to members of this family's genus Sciurus and Tamiasciurus, which are tree squirrels with large bushy tails, indigenous to Asia, the America...
s rarely live to their maximum life span, usually dying of accident

Accident

Disease

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and Medical signs....
. Grazing animals show wear and tear to their teeth to the point where they can no longer eat, and they die of starvation

Starvation

Starvation is a severe reduction in vitamin, nutrient, and energy intake, and is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation causes permanent organ damage and, eventually, death....
.

The maximum life span of most species has not been accurately determined, because the data collection has been minimal and the number of species studied in captivity (or by monitoring in the wild) has been small.

Maximum life span is usually longer for species that are larger or have effective defenses against predation, such as bird flight, tortoise shells, porcupine quills, or large primate brains. When compared to primates, of the approximately 20,000 to 25,000 genes in the human genome

Genome

In classical genetics, the genome of a diploid organism including eukarya refers to a full set of chromosomes or genes in a gamete; thereby, a regular somatic cell contains two full sets of genomes....
, it is estimated that 6% of these are different from those of a chimpanzee which has an average lifespan of only 52 years, in contrast to the human lifespan. The difference in longevity

Longevity

The word longevity is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography. However, this is not the most popular or accepted definition....
between humans and chimps could be due to as few as a hundred gene

Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
s or less; however there may be other factors that shorten the life span of chimpanzees.

The differences between life span between species demonstrate the role of genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
in determining maximum life span ("rate of aging"). The records (in years) are these:

for mice
Mouse

A mouse is a small animal that belongs to one of numerous species of rodents. The best known mouse species is the House Mouse . It is also a popular pet....
, 4
for dog
Dog

The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
s, 29, in Australia
Aging in dogs

Aging in dogs covers the impact of aging in the domestic dog , common medical and clinical issues arising, and life expectancy.Canine conditions such as temperature, change, hearing, and skin condition often degrade with geriatric age, and medical conditions such as cancer, renal failure, arthritis and joint conditions, and other signs of...
for cat
Cat

The cat , also known as the Domestication cat or house cat to distinguish it from other Felinae and Felidae, is a small predationy carnivore species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes, scorpions, and other unwanted household pests....
s, 36
for polar bear
Polar Bear

The polar bear is a bear native to the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding seas. The world's largest carnivore found on land, and shares the title of largest land predator with the Kodiak Bear, an adult male weighs around , while an adult female is about half that size....
s, 42 (Debby
Debby (polar bear)

Debby was the world's oldest polar bear. She lived in the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg. In August 2008, the Guinness Book of World Records certified her as not only the oldest polar bear, but one of the three oldest individuals ever recorded of all bear species....
)
for goldfish
Goldfish

The goldfish is a domesticated version of the Prussian carp , a dark-gray/brown carp native to Asia. It was first bred for color in China over 1,000 years ago....
, 49
for horse
Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
s, 62
for chimpanzee
Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially known as a chimp, is the common name for the two Extant taxon species of ape in the genus Pan where the Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s, 76 (Cheeta
Cheeta

Cheeta , is a chimpanzee character appearing in numerous Hollywood Tarzan films of the 1930s-1960s as well as the 1966-1968 Tarzan , as the ape sidekick of the title character, Tarzan....
)
for elephant
Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals of the order Proboscidea and the family Elephantidae. There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant ....
s, 86

The longest-lived vertebrates have been variously described as

koi
Koi

, or more specifically , are ornamental domesticated varieties of the common carp Cyprinus carpio. They are also sometimes called Japanese carp....
(A Japanese species of fish, 200+ years, though generally not exceeding 25)
tortoise
Tortoise

Tortoises or land turtles are land-dwelling reptiles of the family of Testudinidae, order Turtle. Like their marine cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell....
s (Galápagos tortoise
Galápagos tortoise

The Gal?pagos tortoise , is the largest living tortoise, Endemism to seven islands of the Gal?pagos Islands. Fully grown adults can weigh over and measure long....
) (190 years)
tuatara
Tuatara

The tuatara is a reptile endemism to New Zealand which, though it resembles most lizards, is actually part of a distinct lineage, order Sphenodontia....
s (a New Zealand reptile species, 100-200+ years)
whale
Whale

Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea which are neither dolphinsmembers, in other words, of the families Oceanic dolphin or River dolphinnor porpoises....
s (Bowhead Whale
Bowhead Whale

The Bowhead Whale , also known as Greenland Right Whale or Arctic Whale, is a baleen whale of the right whale family Balaenidae. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to 20 meters in length....
) (about 200 years)

Although this idea was considered specious for a time, recent research has indicated that bowhead whale

Bowhead Whale

The Bowhead Whale , also known as Greenland Right Whale or Arctic Whale, is a baleen whale of the right whale family Balaenidae. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to 20 meters in length....
s recently killed still had harpoon

Harpoon

A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or other large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal....
s in their bodies from the 1790s, which, along with analysis of amino acids, has indicated a maximum life span, so far, of at least 211 years .

Invertebrate species which continue to grow as long as they live (e.g., certain clams, some coral species) can on occasion live hundreds of years:

A bivalve mollusc
Bivalvia

Bivalves are molluscs belonging to the class Bivalvia. They have two-part animal shells, and typically both valves are symmetry along the hinge line....
(Arctica islandica
Arctica islandica

File:Arctica islandica Islandmuschel.jpgArctica islandica, commonly known as the ocean hard clam, is an edible marine bivalvia mollusca native to the North Atlantic ocean....
) (between 405-410 years)

However, with the possible exception of the Bowhead whale, the claims of lifespans >100 year must be taken with some skepticisms as they rely on conjecture (e.g. counting otoliths) rather than empirical, continuous documentation.

In plants

Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s are referred to as annuals

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates flowers and dies in one year. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed....
which only live one year, biennials

Biennial plant

A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots , then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months....
which live two years, and perennials

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
which live longer than that. The longest-lived perennials, woody-stemmed plants such as trees and bushes, often live for hundreds and even thousands of years (one may question whether or not they may die of old age). A giant sequoia, General Sherman

General Sherman (tree)

General Sherman is the name of a Sequoiadendron with a height of 275 feet . As of 2002, the volume of its trunk measured about 1487 cubic meters, making it the largest organism by volume....
is alive and well in its second millennium

Millennium

A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years . The term may implicitly refer to calendar millenniums; periods tied numerically to a particular calendar, specifically ones that begin at the starting point of the calendar in question or in later years which are whole number multiples of a thousand years after it....
. A Great Basin Bristlecone Pine

Great Basin Bristlecone Pine

Pinus longaeva, the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, is a long living species of tree found in the higher mountains of the southwest United States....
called Methuselah

Methuselah (tree)

Methuselah is a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountains , which was 4,789 years old when sampled in 1957 by Schulman and Harlan....
is 4,838 years old and the Bristlecone Pine called Prometheus

Prometheus (tree)

Prometheus was the nickname given to the list of long-living organisms known clonal colony organism, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine tree approximately 5,000 years old which formerly grew at tree line on Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada, USA....
was a little older still, 4,844 years, when it was cut down in 1964.

Increasing maximum life span

Currently, the only (non-transgenic) method of increasing maximum life span that is recognized by biogerontologists

Gerontology

Gerontology is the study of the social, Psychology and Biology aspects of Ageing. It is distinguished from geriatrics, which is the branch of medicine that studies the disease of the elderly....
is calorie restriction

Calorie restriction

Calorie restriction, or caloric restriction , is a dietary regime thought to improve health and slow the Senescence process by limiting dietary energy intake....
with adequate nutrition. "Maximum life span" here means the mean life span of the most long-lived 10% of a given cohort, as caloric restriction has not yet been shown to break mammalian world records for longevity. Rat

Rat

Rats are various medium sized, long-tailed rodents of the Family Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus....
s, mice

Mouse

A mouse is a small animal that belongs to one of numerous species of rodents. The best known mouse species is the House Mouse . It is also a popular pet....
, and hamster

Hamster

Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 18 species, classified in six or seven genus....
s experience maximum life-span extension from a diet that contains 40–60% of the calories (but all of the required nutrients) that the animals consume when they can eat as much as they want. Mean life span is increased 65% and maximum life span is increased 50%, when caloric restriction is begun just before puberty

Puberty

Puberty refers to the process of physical changes by which a child's body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. Puberty is initiated by hormone signals from the brain to the gonads ....
.). For fruit flies the life extending benefits of calorie restriction are gained immediately at any age upon beginning calorie restriction and ended immediately at any age upon resuming full feeding).

Mammals fed antioxidant

Antioxidant

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the Redox of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent....
s show up to a 30% increase in mean life span, but no increase in maximum life span (though even that is controversial: many studies report no increase in lifespan at all). Antioxidants are most valuable for animals that are cancer-prone or subjected to radiation

Radiation

In physics, radiation describes any process in which energy emitted by one body travels through a medium or through space, ultimately to be absorbed by another body....
or chemical toxins. There are evidently homeostatic mechanisms in cells that govern the amount of allowable antioxidant activity. Many life-extensionists

Life extension

Life extension refers to an increase in maximum lifespan or Life expectancy, especially in humans, by slowing down or reversing the senescence. Average lifespan is heavily influenced by infant mortality and child mortality, which are frequently linked to infectious diseases or nutrition problems....
have dismissed the value of antioxidants simply because they have not been shown to increase maximum life span, but such a view neglects the significance of an extended mean life span.

A few transgenic species of mice have been created that have maximum life spans greater than that of wild-type or laboratory mice. The Ames and Snell mice, which have mutations in pituitary transcription factors and hence are deficient in Gh, LH, TSH, and secondarly IGF1, have extensions in maximal lifespan of up to 65%. To date, both in absolute and relative terms, these Ames and Snell mice have the maximum lifespan of any mouse not on caloric restriction (see below on GhR). Mutations/knockout of other genes affecting the GH/IGF1 axis, such as Lit, Ghr and Irs1 have also shown extension in lifespan, but much more modest both in relative and absolute terms. The longest ever lived laboratory mouse was a Ghr knockout on caloric restriction, which lived to ~1800 days (maximum for normal B6 mice under ideal conditions is 1200 days) in the lab of A. Bartke at Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University is a state university located in southern Illinois with two institutions and multiple campuses. Glenn Poshard is President of Southern Illinois University....
.

Most biomedical gerontologists

Gerontology

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline and profession of applying Technology and science knowledge and utilizing natural laws and physical resources in order to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and process that safely realize a desired objective and meet specified criteria....
will eventually extend maximum lifespan and even bring about rejuvenation

Rejuvenation (aging)

Rejuvenation is the hypothetical reversal of the Senescence.Rejuvenation is distinct from life extension. Life extension strategies often study the causes of aging and try to oppose those causes in order to slow aging....
.

While most aging researchers are rather cautious, fearing a vitalist public backlash, one theoretical gerontologist not shy of expressing opinions on the extension of human lifespan is Aubrey de Grey

Aubrey de Grey

Dr. Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey is a United Kingdom biomedical gerontology.De Grey is the author of the mitochondrial free-radical theory of aging, and the general-audience book Ending Aging, a detailed description of how regenerative medicine may be able to thwart the aging process altogether within a few decades....
. His theoretical project to reverse the damage called aging is called SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence). Dr. de Grey has established the The Methuselah Mouse Prize to award money to researchers who can extend the maximum life span of mice. A. Bartker collected the prize for the GhR knockout mouse and Speakman collected the prize for extending the maximum lifespan of an adult mouse, using caloric restriction initiated late in lifespan.

Research data concerning maximum life span

A comparison of the heart mitochondria in rats (4-year maximum life span) and pigeons (35-year maximum life span) showed that pigeon mitochondria leak fewer free-radicals
Radical (chemistry)

In chemistry, radicals are atoms, molecules or ions with unpaired electrons on an otherwise open shell configuration. These unpaired electrons are usually highly chemical reaction, so radicals are likely to take part in chemical reactions....
than rat mitochondria, despite the fact that both animals have similar metabolic rate and cardiac output

For mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s there is a direct relationship between mitochondrial membrane fatty acid saturation and maximum life span

Studies of the liver
Liver

The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals; it has a wide range of functions, a few of which are detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion....
lipid
Lipid

Lipids are broadly defined as any fat-soluble , naturally-occurring molecule, such as fats, oils, waxes, cholesterol, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins , monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others....
s of mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s and a bird (pigeon) show an inverse relationship between maximum life span and number of double bonds

Selected species of birds and mammals show an inverse relationship between telomere
Telomere

A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of chromosomes, which protects the end of the chromosome from destruction. Its name is derived from the Greek nouns telos "end" and mer?s "part"....
rate of change (shortening) and maximum life span

Maximum life span correlates negatively with antioxidant
Antioxidant

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the Redox of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent....
enzyme
Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
levels and correlates positively with lower rate of free-radicals
Radical (chemistry)

In chemistry, radicals are atoms, molecules or ions with unpaired electrons on an otherwise open shell configuration. These unpaired electrons are usually highly chemical reaction, so radicals are likely to take part in chemical reactions....
production and higher rate of DNA repair
DNA repair

DNA repair refers to a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolism activities and environmental factors such as UV light and Radiation can cause DNA damage, resulting in as many as 1 million individual molecular lesions per cell pe...

Females express both more Mn−SOD and more glutathione peroxidase antioxidant enzymes than males, and this has been suggested to be the reason females live longer than males in mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
ian species This theory is difficult to square with the fact that mice lacking Glutathione peroxidase 1 entirely do not show any reduction in lifespan whatsoever.

The maximum life span of transgenic
Genetically modified organism

File:GloFish.jpgA genetically modified organism or genetically engineered organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques....
mice has been extended about 20% by overexpression of human catalase
Catalase

Catalase is a common enzyme found in nearly all living organisms which are exposed to oxygen, where it functions to catalyst the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen....
targeted to mitochondria

A comparison of 7 non-primate mammals (mouse, hamster, rat, guinea-pig, rabbit, pig and cow) showed that the rate of mitochondrial superoxide and hydrogen peroxide production in heart and kidney were inversely correlated with maximum life span

A study of 8 non-primate mammals showed a direct correlation between maximum life span and oxidative damage to mtDNA (Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondrion. Most other DNA present in eukaryotic organisms is found in the cell nucleus....
) in heart & brain

A study of several species of mammals and a bird (pigeon) indicated a linear relationship between oxidative damage to protein and maximum life span

There is a direct correlation between DNA repair and maximum life span for mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
ian species

Drosophila
Drosophila

Drosophila is a genus of small fly, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "fruit flies" or more appropriately pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit....
(fruit-flies) bred for 15 generations by only using eggs that were laid toward the end of reproductive life achieved maximum life spans 30% greater than that of controls

Overexpression of the enzyme which synthesizes glutathione
Glutathione

Glutathione is a tripeptide. It contains an unusual peptide linkage between the amino acid of cysteine and the carboxyl group of the glutamate side chain....
in long-lived transgenic
Genetically modified organism

File:GloFish.jpgA genetically modified organism or genetically engineered organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques....
Drosophila
Drosophila

Drosophila is a genus of small fly, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "fruit flies" or more appropriately pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit....
(fruit-flies) extended maximum lifespan by nearly 50%

A mutation in the age−1 gene of the nematode
Nematode

The "roundworms" or "nematodes" are the most diverse phylum of body cavity, and one of the most diverse of all animals. Nematode species are very difficult to distinguish; over 80,000 have been described, of which over 15,000 are parasite....
worm Caenorhabditis elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans

'Caenorhabditis elegans' is a free-living, transparent nematode , about 1 mm in length, which lives in temperate soil environments. Research into the molecular biology and developmental biology of C....
increased mean life span 65% and maximum life span 110%. However, the degree of lifespan extension in relative terms by both the age-1 and daf-2 mutations is strongly dependent on ambient temperature, with ~10% extension at 16*C and 65% extension at 27*C.

Fat-specific Insulin Receptor KnockOut
Knockout mouse

A knockout mouse is a genetic engineering mus musculus in which one or more genes have been turned off through a gene knockout. Knockout mice are important animal models for studying the role of genes which have been sequencing, but have unknown functions....
(FIRKO) mice have reduced fat mass, normal calorie intake and an increased maximum life span of 18%

The capacity of mammalian species to detoxify the carcinogenic chemical benzo(a)pyrene
Benzopyrene

Benzo[a]pyrene, C20H12, is a five-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon that is mutagenic and highly carcinogenic. It is a crystalline yellow solid....
to a water-soluble form also correlates well with maximum life span

Short-term induction of oxidative stress
Oxidative stress

Oxidative stress is caused by an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species and a biological system's ability to readily detoxify the reactive intermediates or easily repair the resulting damage....
due to calorie restriction
Calorie restriction

Calorie restriction, or caloric restriction , is a dietary regime thought to improve health and slow the Senescence process by limiting dietary energy intake....
increases life span in Caenorhabditis elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans

'Caenorhabditis elegans' is a free-living, transparent nematode , about 1 mm in length, which lives in temperate soil environments. Research into the molecular biology and developmental biology of C....
by promoting stress defense, specifically by inducing an enzyme called catalase. As shown by Michael Ristow
Michael Ristow

Michael Ristow is a Germany medical researcher who has published influential articles on the metabolism basis of human diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity and cancer, as well as general aging processes....
and co-workers nutritive antioxidants completely abolish this extension of life span by inhibiting a process called mitohormesis.

Maximum life span

Definition

In humans

In other animals

In plants

Increasing maximum life span

Research data concerning maximum life span

See also

External links