Calorie Restriction Culls Senescent Cells

Calorie restriction has been shown to slow down almost every measure of degenerative aging examined to date. Here is another such open access study: "Dietary restriction (DR) extends the lifespan of a wide variety of species and reduces the incidence of major age-related diseases. Cell senescence has been proposed as one causal mechanism for tissue and organism ageing. We show for the first time that adult-onset, short-term DR reduced frequencies of senescent cells in the small intestinal epithelium and liver of mice, which are tissues known to accumulate increased numbers of senescent cells with advancing age. This reduction was associated with improved telomere maintenance without increased telomerase activity. We also found a decrease in cumulative oxidative stress markers in the same compartments despite absence of significant changes in steady-state oxidative stress markers at the whole tissue level. The data suggest the possibility that reduction of cell senescence may be a primary consequence of DR which in turn may explain known effects of DR such as improved mitochondrial function and reduced production of reactive oxygen species." The telomere maintenance line item above might suggest that the shortest-telomere cells - i.e. senescent cells - are being destroyed and recycled, thus raising the average amongst remaining cells.

Link: http://www.impactaging.com/papers/v2/n9/full/100196.html

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