You're here: My Science Blogging » Discovery » Article: Fighting Diseases Of Aging By Wasting Energy, Rather Than Dieting
Yessi Pratiwi — December 16, 2007 / 6:28 pm
Atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer occur more frequently with increasing age, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis explained.
By making the skeletal muscles of mice use energy less efficiently, researchers report that they have delayed the animals’ deaths and their development of age-related diseases.
Clay Semenkovich said, although it does not extend maximum lifespan in mice, activating a protein in muscle tissue increases average lifespan and prevents some age-related diseases.
He explained to Science Daily, age-related diseases are distinct from the process of aging, a physiological decline that includes decreases in muscle strength, cardiopulmonary function, vision, and hearing as well as wrinkled skin and graying hair.
They fed the mouse with a normal chow diet and followed each mouse until its natural death. While half were genetically engineered to make more of a protein in their muscle tissue called uncoupling protein-1. Their littermates did not make excess uncoupling protein. In muscle tissue, uncoupling protein-1 converts the energy from food into heat and mimics the effects of exercise. Then, they found that mice with extra uncoupling protein-1 in muscle tissue are protected from diabetes and obesity.
The researchers believe a similar approach may someday help people avoid age-related problems such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension and even some cancers.
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