CHAPTER 12: Inflammaging, Oxidative Stress and Carnosine: Role of Hormetic Vitagenes

Carnosine is a natural dipeptide with remarkable potential to reverse many biochemical changes occurring in cells and tissues with advancing age and it is a promising nutritional strategy to counteract the deleterious effects of inflammaging process. To date, carnosine has emerged as a prolongevity nutrient for its ability to induce or modulate cellular stress response pathways. These include the activation of hormetic processes that are controlled by vitagenes, a group of genes involved in preserving endogenous redox homeostasis and cellular defense. This chapter summarizes the reports available on the functional and hormetic aspects of carnosine in potentiating the expression of vitagenes.