Epigenetics and Apoptosis in Development and Aging: Retrospective from the End of Last Century

Abstract

This story began for us at the end of the decade of eighties when we became involved in studies on hormonal regulation in primary liver and pituitary cell cultures obtained from rats of different age groups: perinatal, prepubertal and adults. These studies continued later in vivo on somaitc and organ growth in rats treated with several hormones. The results of investigations in vivo and in vitro, together with the data of subsequent epidemiological studies have influenced our decision to be associated with Latin-American chapter of International Society for DOHaD (Developmental Origins of Health and Disease) since the year 2009 and till the present time.

One of the main objectives of this Society is to study the phenomena of programming / imprinting and embedding and to evaluate their possible mechanisms. Here we aimed at estimation of the roles of epigenetics and apoptosis in the link of development and aging uniquely studied by this Society.

At present it is suggested that (epi)genetic code is made of 5 and perhaps even 6 nucleotide derivatives (and not 4, as hypothesized in classical studies) [1-4]. The fifth component is 5-methyl cytosine. In addition to nucleotide (epi)genetic code, there exists probably also quite complex histone code, because of various covalent modifications of these proteins, the most studied being acetylation and methylation [5, 6].

Citation

Goudochnikov VI. Epigenetics and Apoptosis in Development and Aging: Retrospective from the End of Last Century. WebLog J Gerontol Geriatr. wjgg.2026.i0906. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22847269