The secret of a low-calorie diet
A long-term low-calorie diet prevents molecular changes that occur during aging
Skoltech, Naked Science
It turned out that age-related changes affect many genes associated with molecular pathways involved in the aging process at the cellular level, and a long-term low-calorie diet hinders their development. The results of the study are published in the journal Aging Cell (Sziráki et al., Global remodeling of the mouse DNA methylome during aging and in response to calorie restriction.
In the process of aging, many molecular changes occur in the body, including epigenetic changes (these are called modifications of DNA and proteins that do not affect the sequence of the genetic code, but have a great impact on the work of genes). One of the most studied epigenetic processes is DNA methylation (hanging additional methyl groups on DNA). It is known that in a number of living organisms, including humans, methylation in some regions of the genome is less active with age, while in others, on the contrary, it increases. Understanding what changes occur with aging can help you learn how to reverse them and, thus, possibly increase life expectancy.
Scientists from Skoltech and Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA) studied the dynamics of methylation in the blood of mice during aging, using 16 different age groups. It turned out that the changes manifest themselves mainly at a late age and represent an increase in the entropy of the methylation system (low-methylated genes increase the degree of methylation, while high-methylated genes lose it). In addition, scientists have identified specific cellular mechanisms affected by these changes, and found that many of them are known for their role in the aging process and are targets of drugs that prolong the life of animals. Finally, the researchers traced how a low-calorie diet, which leads to a significant increase in life expectancy, affects the changes found. Interestingly, in mice that were kept on a low-calorie diet for a long time, age-related changes slowed down, while short-term calorie reduction not only did not slow down age-related changes, but, on the contrary, led to their acceleration.
"This experiment has clearly demonstrated that the effect of life-prolonging exposure can be different depending on the duration of this exposure. So, in this case, we see that a low-calorie diet has a cumulative effect and slows down age-related changes the more the animal stays on it. And short-term exposure does lead to some changes that occur in the aging process. However, they are eliminated fairly quickly during the further diet," says Alexander Tyshkovsky, one of the authors of the study, a graduate student at Skoltech.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru