Another Path to Mouse Longevity

There are many ways to engineer mammalian metabolism for greater longevity, and more are discovered with each passing year. Any significant upgrade is likely to be a greater challenge to deploy in humans than repairing the metabolism we have, however. Here's a more impressive than average new example of engineered mice; these overexpress PEPCK-C, or Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. Note that the full PDF-format paper is freely available: "These mice were seven times more active in their cages than controls. On a mouse treadmill, PEPCK-C mice ran up to 6 km at a speed of 20 m/min while controls stopped at 0.2 km. ... The PEPCK-C mice eat 60% more than controls, but had half the body weight and 10% the body fat ... In addition, the number of mitochondria and the content of triglyceride in the skeletal muscle of PEPCK-C mice was greatly increased as compared to controls. PEPCK-C mice had an extended life span relative to control animals; mice up to an age of 2.5 years ran twice as fast as 6-12 month old control animals. We conclude that over-expression of PEPCK-C repatterns energy metabolism and leads to greater longevity."

Link: http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/abstract/M706127200v1