The Degradation and Aging of Biological Systems as a Process of Information Loss and Entropy Increase
Vladimir V. Aristov,
Alexey V. Karnaukhov,
Anatoly S. Buchelnikov,
Vladimir F. Levchenko,
Yury D. Nechipurenko
Affiliations
Vladimir V. Aristov
Federal Research Center “Computer Science and Control” of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova Str. 40, 119333 Moscow, Russia
Alexey V. Karnaukhov
Institute of Cell Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moskovskaya obl., Institutskaya Str. 3, 142290 Pushchino, Russia
Anatoly S. Buchelnikov
Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biophysics, Sevastopol State University, Universitetskaya Str. 33, 299053 Sevastopol, Russia
Vladimir F. Levchenko
Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation, Thorez 44, 194223 St. Petersburg, Russia
Yury D. Nechipurenko
Laboratory of DNA–Protein Interactions, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova Str. 32, 119991 Moscow, Russia
The problem of the degradation and aging of bioorganisms is herein considered from the viewpoint of statistical physics. Two typical timescales in biological systems—the time of metabolic processes and the time of the life cycle—are used. A kinetic equation describing the small timescales of the systems’ characteristic processes in is proposed. Maintaining a biosystem in a time-stable state requires a constant inflow of negative entropy (negentropy). Ratios are proposed to evaluate the aging and degradation of systems in terms of entropy. As an example, the aging of the epithelium is studied. The connection of our approach to the information theory of aging is discussed, as well as theoretical constructions related to the concept of cooperon and its changing with time.
