A Brief Overview to Ageing-Related Organ Damage: A Light and Electron Microscopic Approach to Several Systems

Abstract

Ageing is thought to be a degenerative process caused by accumulated damage leading to cellular dysfunction, tissue, and organ failure, and eventually death. Although aging-related skin changes are considered the most important indicator of ageing, morphological and functional changes occur in all of the internal organs. Most of those changes are directly or indirectly associated with age-related decline of life quality. Histopathological features of the organs of old people are examined in postmortem tissues which are probably affected by diseases alongside ageing itself. Recent studies principally report the cellular changes obtained from rodents. The most commonly reported ageing-related ultrastructural changes are mitochondrial damage, lysosome and lipofuscin accumulation and dilatation or proliferation of endoplasmic reticulum. Here I summarize ageing-related changes in various organs such as skin, brain, heart, kidney, intestines etc. that have been revealed by light and electron microscopic examinations so far. Understanding ageing-related cell and tissue-based changes and related molecular mechanisms will contribute to the development of new strategies to prevent or eliminate age-related organ damage.