The Aging Extracellular Matrix

Joe Betts-LaCroix, CEO of Retro Biosciences, presented a broad overview of the extracellular matrix (ECM). He is not an ECM expert but is extremely interested in the biology involved in this particular field. The ECM gets fragmented, glycated, and crosslinked with aging. These processes damage the ECM and make it fragile and rigid. In some tissues, homeostatic turnover regenerates ECM but in places that are far from regenerative cells the ECM does not get repaired. Senescence, inflammaging, advanced glycation endproducts, and circadian rhythm degradation are all tied to ECM health and as it decays these destructive processes proliferate. Studying the ECM is of vital importance to understanding aging.