CONTACT
Katharina Möller
KMoeller@age.mpg.de
49-221-472-6311
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
How nutrition affects healthy aging
The correct combination of proteins is decisive for
healthy aging, not reducing the calories in our diet
This release is available in
German.
A new study of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing could help to understand
the positive effect of dietary restriction on healthy ageing. Previous evidence
from different organisms (fruit flies and mice) have shown that dietary restriction
increases longevity, but with a potential negative side effect of diminished fertility.
So the female fruit fly reproduces less frequently with a reduced litter size on
a low calorie diet, but its reproductive span lasts longer. This is the result of
an evolutionary trait, as scientists believe: essential nutrients are diverted towards
survival instead of reproduction. (Nature, December 3, 2009)
Researchers from the newly founded Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in
Cologne have studied whether health benefit stem from a reduction in specific nutrients
or calorie intake in general by manipulating the diet of female fruit flies. The
fruit flies were fed a diet of yeast, sugar and water, but with differing amounts
of key nutrients, such as vitamins, lipids and amino acids. The scientists were
able to show that longevity and fertility are affected by a combination of the type
and amount of amino acids; whilst varying the amount of the other nutrients had
little or no effect. Furthermore, the researchers found out in previous studies
that levels of a particular amino acid – methionine – were crucial to
increasing lifespan without decreasing fertility. By carefully manipulating the
balance of amino acids, both lifespan and fertility were maximized. For the first
time, this indicates that it is possible to extend lifespan without wholesale dietary
restriction and without lowering reproductive capacity.
As the effects of dietary restriction on lifespan is evolutionary conserved –
observed in different organisms – researchers believe that the essential mechanisms
apply to it as well. Even though the human genome has about four times the number
of genes as the fruit fly genome, there are many similarities on a genetic level,
allowing these results to be of significance for humans as well.
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