Sea urchins exhibit a very different life history from humans and short-lived model animals and therefore provide the opportunity to gain new insight into the complex process of aging. Sea urchins grow indeterminately, regenerate damaged appendages, and reproduce throughout their lifespan. Some species show no increase in mortality rate at advanced ages. Nevertheless, different species of sea urchins have very different reported lifespans ranging from 4 to more than 100 years, thus providing a unique model to investigate the molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms underlying both lifespan determination and negligible senescence. Studies to date have demonstrated maintenance of telomeres, maintenance of antioxidant and proteasome enzyme activities, and little accumulation of oxidative cellular damage with age in tissues of sea urchin species with different lifespans. Gene expression studies indicate that key cellular pathways involved in energy metabolism, protein homeostasis, and tissue regeneration are maintained with age. Taken together, these studies suggest that long-term maintenance of mechanisms that sustain tissue homeostasis and regenerative capacity is essential for indeterminate growth and negligible senescence, and a better understanding of these processes may suggest effective strategies to mitigate the degenerative decline in human tissues with age.

中文翻译：

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可忽略衰老的细胞和分子机制：来自海胆的见解

海胆表现出与人类和短命模型动物截然不同的生活史，因此提供了对复杂的衰老过程获得新见解的机会。海胆无限生长，再生受损的附属物，并在其一生中繁殖。有些物种在高龄时死亡率没有增加。然而，据报道，不同种类的海胆的寿命差异很大，从 4 年到 100 多年不等，因此提供了一个独特的模型来研究寿命决定和可忽略的衰老背后的分子、细胞和生理机制。迄今为止的研究表明，不同寿命的海胆物种的组织中端粒的维持、抗氧化剂和蛋白酶体酶活性的维持以及氧化细胞损伤随着年龄的增长而很少积累。基因表达研究表明，参与能量代谢、蛋白质稳态和组织再生的关键细胞途径随着年龄的增长而得以维持。总而言之，这些研究表明，维持组织稳态和再生能力的机制的长期维持对于不确定的生长和可忽略的衰老至关重要，更好地了解这些过程可能会提出有效的策略来减轻人体组织随年龄增长的退行性衰退。