Editorial

Abstract

Human aging is characterized by large differences between and within older adults. Numerous factors are known to contribute to these differences, including genetic and immunological, somatic and medical, cognitive and behavioral, psychosocial and experiential, as well as socioeconomic and geospatial conditions. Continuing and expanding the scientific objectives of the Berlin Aging Study, the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) seeks to comprehensively describe phenomena associated with aging and old age and to better understand the multiple different underlying factors and their interactions. To this end, BASE-II was established as a multi-institutional project combining and integrating interdisciplinary perspectives ranging from molecular genetics and immunology, geriatric medicine and psychology, to sociology and economics. In this Special Issue, we have compiled seven empirical analyses that feature examples of interdisciplinary insights that BASE-II provides by linking data across multiple levels of analyses at which human functioning and development occur in old age. Here, we provide an overview of the study, note commonalities between BASE-II and earlier studies, and highlight some of its unique qualities.

Sex-specific and inter-individual differences in biomarkers of selenium status identified by a calibrated ELISA for selenoprotein P

“…In order to test these findings in a second independent cohort with a closer examination of the influence of age, high quality serum samples were analyzed from young (22−26 y) and elderly (73−79 y) men and women (n=10 per group) participating in the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) [24], [25]. Again, compared to cohort 1 both Se (male; 61.2±17.8 vs. female; 64.3±8.9 µg/L; P=0.491) and SELENOP (male; 4.1±1.2 vs. female; 4.0±0.7 mg/L; P=0.720) concentrations did not differ between the sexes.…”

“…The human serum samples were from participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II), a multidisciplinary project investigating medical, physical, cognitive, and social conditions related to “healthy” and”unhealthy” aging (cohort 2). The BASE-II study population consisted of about 2200 study subjects aged 60–80 years (elderly group) and 20–35 years (younger group) at baseline recruitment from the greater metropolitan area of Berlin, Germany [24], [25]. All participants had given written informed consent, and the study had been approved by the Ethics Committee of the Charité- Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany (no.…”

Self-reported sleep relates to hippocampal atrophy across the adult lifespan – results from the Lifebrain consortium

“…The sample was derived from the European Lifebrain project (http://www.lifebrain.uio.no/) [37], including participants from major European brain studies: Berlin Study of Aging-II (BASE-II) [38, 39], the BETULA project ([40], the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience study (Cam-CAN) [41], Center for Lifebrain Changes in Brain and Cognition longitudinal studies (LCBC) [42, 43], Whitehall-II (WH-II) [44], and University of Barcelona brain studies [45–47]. In total, self-reported sleep and hippocampal volume data from 3105 participants (18-90 years) were included.…”

Self-Reported Sleep Relates to Microstructural Hippocampal Decline in β-Amyloid Positive Adults Beyond Genetic Risk

“…To test the relationship between the relevant sleep variable (see below for selection criteria) and memory change, we also included data from the Lifebrain consortium (http://www.lifebrain.uio.no/) 15 , an EU-funded (H2020) project including participants from several major European brain studies: Berlin Study of Aging-II (BASE-II) 45,46 , the BETULA project 47 , University of Barcelona brain studies [48][49][50] , and Whitehall-II 51 , yielding a total of 1196 participants. The samples and procedures used are described in detail elsewhere 8 .…”