More on Resveratrol, Sirtuins
From the New York Times, another angle on the calorie restriction mimetic resveratrol and sirtuin research: "very large doses of resveratrol protected mice from gaining weight and from developing metabolic syndrome. Dr. Auwerx attributes this change in large part to the significantly increased number of mitochondria ... the treated mice were able to burn off more fat and thus avoid weight gain and decreased sensitivity to insulin ... The principal theory [is] that the sirtuins somehow sense the level of energy expenditure in living cells and switch the body's resources from reproduction to tissue maintenance when food is low. ... The [switch] involves specific action to stave off the major degenerative diseases of aging, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and neurodegeneration. ... One serious uncertainty is whether, in the mouse experiments, resveratrol in fact acted through the sirtuins or by some other unknown mechanism." It won't be too long now before we find out what's really going on under the hood in calorie restriction.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/science/17endurancecnd.html?pagewanted=print