Abstract
Ageing, especially human ageing can be explained by the emerging concept of para-inflammation-driven inflammageing, which is a coinage combining inflammation and ageing. Inflammageing explains that ageing, either physiological or pathological, can be driven by a low level of a variety of pro-inflammatory cytokines and substances produced by the innate immune system. Animals must maintain homeostasis during ageing with time against incessant attack from both intrinsic and extrinsic stimuli/antigens. These potentially harmful pro-inflammatory signals at a variety of the later stage of life may act antagonistically to their beneficial role as developmental engines for body system formation at an earlier stage of life. The idea of inflammageing is based on an antagonistic pleiotropy theory programmed during evolution. Clinical trials including caloric restriction, sirtuin activators and p38 MAPK inhibitors against premature ageing models such as metabolic syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and Werner syndrome have been proposed.
