Why brain functions may deteriorate with aging: a thermodynamic evaluation

摘要

Oxidative Gibbs free energy utilisation capacity and the entropy generation rate of the brain decreases with ageing. At the present level of our knowledge, we may say that the ageing damage to the brain functions may be caused by the decreasing brain work performance ability due to deterioration of the energy generation capacity of the mitochondria and the decreasing work performance ability of the warned-out ion pumps. Thermodynamic assessment points to the muscle work performance ability as the place to look at. Nature has equipped the muscle cells with healing capability, in terms of fixing the damage to the mitochondria or multiplying their numbers. If the same natural healing technologies may be implemented to the brain cells, ageing damage to the brain cells may be at least partly recovered.