Gray hair in the beard – the devil in the rib: starvation does not affect it

Caloric restriction increases life expectancy and eliminates some of the effects of aging. At the same time, in contrast to the obvious positive changes observed in somatic organs, in females "sitting" on a starvation diet, aging of the body leads to significant violations of ovarian functions, and in starving males, age-related changes in testicular cells are much less pronounced.

Scientists at the US National Institute of Aging (Baltimore), working under the guidance of Dr. Minoru Ko, used microchips for genome-wide analysis, allowing to study the influence of age, gender and diet on global gene expression in mouse ovaries and testes. It turned out that the reproductive organs do not age in the same way as other organs and tissues of the body, and the dynamics of ovarian aging differs from the dynamics of testicular aging.

Only 2 out of 6 categories of genes previously associated with the aging of muscles, kidneys and brain were involved in the aging of the ovaries, and none in the aging of the seminal glands.

The authors also found that caloric restriction in female mice reduces the expression of genes involved in the metabolism and growth of follicles, which confirms the hypothesis that fasting shifts the distribution of energy consumed from reproduction processes to maintaining the normal state of the body and regeneration of somatic tissues. At the same time, a limited diet does not cause reproductive dysfunction in male mice, which indicates another difference between males and females that has developed in the process of evolution and manifests itself in conditions of food scarcity.

In addition to getting an answer to one of the key questions of aging, the results of the study are of some importance from the point of view of the tendency observed in developed countries to postpone the birth of children to a later age.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of ScienceDaily

05.06.2008