Research
Mixed
Downregulation of genes encoding mitochondrial proteins is a highly conserved hallmark of cellular ageing across multicellular eukaryotes, correlating with reduced mitochondrial function and lifespan.
Aging is associated with a consistent drop in the genetic instructions for making mitochondrial proteins. While this is a hallmark of aging, interventions like caloric restriction or metformin can reverse this specific gene expression change, suggesting that maintaining mitochondrial gene expression levels may be beneficial for healthspan.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The change most consistently reported in ageing transcriptome studies is a down-regulation of mitochondrial protein mRNAs... This observation correlates well with reports that mitochondrial function decreases substantially with age
Why this rating
Based on meta-analyses across multiple species (yeast, flies, worms, mice, humans) and tissues.
Source
Gene expression hallmarks of cellular ageing
Stephen Frenk et al. · Biogerontology · 2018
DOI 10.1007/s10522-018-9750-z
narrative_reviewCited 198×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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