Mitochondria are intimately involved in the aging process. The decline of autophagic
clearance during aging affects the equilibrium between mitochondrial fusion and fission,
leading to a build-up of dysfunctional mitochondria, oxidative stress, chronic low-grade
inflammation, and increased apoptosis rates, the main hallmarks of aging. Current research
suggests that a large number of microRNAs (miRs or miRNAs) are differentially expressed
during cell aging. Other lines of evidence indicate that several miRs likely share in “inflamm …

52 Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with the aging process and 53 with the
pathogenesis of a variety of disorders such as metabolic syn-54 drome and
neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases (Coskun 55 et al., 2012; Ren et al., 2010).
In normal conditions damaged or dysfunc-56 tional mitochondria are removed via
autophagy and restored by fusion 57 with healthy elements of the mitochondrial network.
However, during 58 aging autophagy declines (Gelino and Hansen, 2012; Palikaras and 59 …