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Faking Calorie Restriction
(Friday March 06 2009)
 | Via the Times of India, which somewhat misses the point by focusing on sugar rather than food in general: "over-consumption of sugar is directly linked to ageing. The researchers, however, say that it's not sugar itself that is important in this process, but rather the ability of cells to sense its presence, that affects the lifespan of a person. ... the study found that if they removed the gene for a glucose sensor from yeast cells, they lived just as long as those living on a glucose-restricted diet. This implies that the fate of these cells doesn't depend on what they eat, but on what they think they're eating, according to the researchers. ... It was found that the lifespan of yeast cells increased when glucose was decreased from their diet. ... They then asked whether the increase in lifespan was due to cells decreasing their ability to produce energy or to the decrease in signal to the cells by the glucose sensor. The scientists found that cells unable to consume glucose as energy source are still sensitive to the pro-aging effects of glucose. On the other hand, obliterating the sensor that measures the levels of glucose significantly increased lifespan." It will be interesting to see whether this is also true - and/or useful - in mammalian cells, and perhaps the basis of a different approach for calorie restriction mimetics. |
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