Blood Component Factors and Antiaging Medicine: Blood Component Factors and Antiaging

Blood is a liquid factor that circulates throughout the body, reflecting genetic, epigenetic, homeostatic maintenance, disease influences, physiological responses, lifestyle, nutritional intake, and other environmental factors. Therefore, it deeply involves the aging of individuals, organs, and cells. Blood contains cellular and noncellular components. Here, we focus on blood metabolites, referring to other items for cellular components of blood (such as immune cells), hormones, and inflammatory factors. “Metabolites” are very small low-molecular metabolites/components synthesized and metabolized while cells are alive, reflecting the metabolic and vital activities of cells, tissues, and individuals. With the latest equipment (such as liquid chromatography mass spectrometers LC-MS), comprehensive analysis of many metabolites (metabolome) is possible. Metabolomics is one of the new scientific methods that detect these low-molecular metabolites and analyze them by statistical methods. Metabolomics is used for elucidating the pathophysiology of diseases, searching for diagnostic markers and biomarkers. Blood is an easily obtainable biological sample and an important analysis target for metabolomics. Many human blood metabolites (about 80%) are evolutionarily conserved in other species metabolites (such as E. coli and yeast) and can play an important role in understanding fundamental life phenomena, including aging. Many studies targeting blood have traditionally targeted plasma or serum, which are noncellular components. One reason for this is the difficulty in stably handling cell-derived metabolites. In recent years, metabolome analysis techniques that perform nontargeted and comprehensive analysis in whole blood (containing both cellular and noncellular components) have also been reported. About half of blood metabolites have been found to be derived from cellular components, and in whole blood metabolome, both (cellular and noncellular components) can be analyzed, and there are advantages such as maintaining the stability of metabolites [1].