REVIEW ARTICLE D-Galactose-induced accelerated aging model: an overview Khairunnuur Fairuz Azman . Rahimah Zakaria Received: 20 August 2019 / Accepted: 17 September 2019 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract To facilitate the process of aging healthily and prevent age-related health problems, efforts to properly understand aging mechanisms and develop effective and affordable anti-aging interventions are deemed necessary. Systemic administration of D- galactose has been established to artificially induce senescence in vitro and in vivo as well as for anti-aging therapeutic interventions studies. The aim of this article is to comprehensively discuss the use of D- galactose to generate a model of accelerated aging and its possible underlying mechanisms involved in different tissues/organs. Keywords D-Galactose Á Aging model Á Senescence Á Anti-aging Introduction Aging is a process characterized by the accumulation of biological changes occurring gradually, leading to a person’s functional decline over time. Globally, the proportion of older people (aged 60 or above) is rising and it has been estimated that it will nearly double from 12% in 2015 to 22% by 2050 (United Nations 2015). Although many welcome the prospect of an increase in lifespan, this needs to be accompanied by an increase in healthy years rather than further years with disability and disease. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the aging process and to find effective anti-aging therapeutic interventions, so that the continual increase in the proportion of older persons in the population will be beneficial rather than detrimental to future societies. Generally, aging models can be classified into two categories: naturally aging model and accelerated aging model. Naturally aging model is time consum- ing and leads to a huge expense, therefore accelerated aging models are more preferred due to its easy application, shorter duration of study and higher survival rate of the animals throughout the experi- mental period. There are various types of accelerated aging models which include hydroxyurea treatment and D-galactose-induced for in vitro studies and radiation-induced, jet lag-induced, senescence-accel- erated prone mice, Klotho mouse, thymus-removed, and D-galactose-induced for in vivo studies. Among these aging models, D-galactose-induced aging model is the most preferred due to its convenience, least side effects, and the higher survival rate throughout the experimental period (Cebe et al. 2014; Yanar et al. 2011). K. F. Azman (&) Á R. Zakaria Department of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, 16150 Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia e-mail: khairunnuur@usm.my 123 Biogerontology https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-019-09837-y