Biological ageing research in the Netherlands

After an introduction on the development of biological ageing research in t he Netherlands during the past decades, 606 papers on aging published by Du tch institutes in the period 1991-2000, collected from PubMed, were analyse d for, their relevance to research into biological ageing. For the period 1 996-2000, the total number of research papers on biological ageing amounted to 142, which accounts for 23% of all publications on ageing in that perio d. The number of publications per year did not change. On the basis of these papers and additional information provided by researc h groups a comprehensive overview of biological ageing research in the Neth erlands is presented, together with an extensive literature list. Ageing of the central nervous system (CNS), of the endocrinological system and of th e cardiovascular system are the topics most studied. It is concluded that g eneral biological ageing research has not increased in the Netherlands over the last ten years, and that the-infrastrueture, for basic biological agei ng research in the Netherlands is weak. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.