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Within the MARK-AGE project, a population study (3337 subjects) was conducted to identify a set of biomarkers of ageing which, as a combination of parameters with appropriate weighting, would measure biological age better than any single marker. The MARK-AGE project involves 14 European countries and a total of 26 research centres.

The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of the current knowledge and understanding of the potential beneficial physiological effects of glucosamine (GlcN) on joint health. The objective was to reach a consensus on four critical questions and to provide recommendations for future research priorities. To this end, nine scientists from Europe and the United States were selected according to their expertise in this particular field and were invited to participate in the Hohenheim conference held in August 2011. Each expert was asked to address a question that had previously been posed by the chairman of the conference. Based on a systematic review of the literature and the collection of recent data, the experts documented the effects of GlcN on cartilage ageing, metabolic/kinetic and maintenance of joint health as well as reduction of risk of OA development. After extensive debate and discussion the expert panel addressed each question and a general consensus statement was developed, agreeing on the current state-of-the-art and future areas for basic and clinical studies. This paper summarizes the available evidence for beneficial effects of GlcN on joint health and proposes new insight into the design of future clinical trials aimed at identifying beneficial physiological effect of GlcN on joint tissues.

Many candidate biomarkers of human ageing have been proposed in the scientific literature but in all cases their variability in cross-sectional studies is considerable, and therefore no single measurement has proven to serve a useful marker to determine, on its own, biological age. A plausible reason for this is the intrinsic multi-causal and multi-system nature of the ageing process.

While assessing the applications for possible health claims for food constituents, we advocate the integration of additional elements, namely grading of evidence, consideration of the risk-benefit ratio and epidemiological and health economic factors.

DNA strand breaks are one of the most common genotoxic lesions and they can also arise as intermediates of DNA repair activity. We have previously published an automated method for measuring DNA strand breaks based on fluorimetric detection of alkaline DNA unwinding [1], and here we present a mathematical model of the FADU assay, which enables to an analytic expression for the relation between measured fluorescence and the number of strand breaks.

Gastrointestinal (GI) discomfort, e.g. bloating or rumbling, is a common symptom in otherwise healthy adults. Approximately 20% of the population, particularly women suffer from gastrointestinal discomfort and this affects quality of life. Recent studies discovered a link between the body and mind, called the gut-brain axis. Psychosocial factors, such as e.g. daily stress may cause altered gut physiology leading to ileum contractions and consequently gastrointestinal symptoms. In vitro and ex vivo studies clearly showed that a Perilla frutescens extract combines prokinetic, antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory effects. The aim of the intervention was to investigate the effects of the proprietary Perilla extract on GI discomfort in healthy subjects with gastrointestinal discomfort and reduced bowel movements in comparison to a placebo product.