Skip the Calories And Save Your Brain
by Amy Norton
NEW YORK, June 30, 2000 (Reuters Health) - While low-calorie diets have
been linked to a longer lifespan in both animals and humans, the reason
for the association has been unclear. Now researchers have evidence from
studies in mice that cutting calories shields brain cells from the
decline that comes with aging.
According to investigators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the
study suggests that calorie intake may help determine a person's risk
for degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer's and PARKINSON'S
disease.
Cheol-Koo Lee and his colleagues report their findings in the July issue
of Nature Genetics.
In experiments with mice, Lee's team used a gene chip, a new type of
gene-scanning technology, to rapidly determine the activity of more than
6,000 genes in the animals' brain
tissue.
The researchers found that aging boosted the activity of some genes and
decreased it in others. As the mice aged, activity increased in genes
responsible for inflammation and the stress response--two key factors
related to cell damage. In addition, activity declined in genes involved
in repairing cell damage. Co-investigator Dr. Richard Weindruch told
Reuters Health that inflammation in the brain isbelieved to be related
to certain diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Since it is known that animals live longer on restricted diets,
Weindruch said, his team expected that brain tissue from mice raised on
low-calorie diets would show fewer aging-related gene shifts. The
researchers had previously shown this to be true in mouse skeletal
muscle.
Indeed, when Weindruch and his colleagues compared elderly mice raised
on a low-calorie diet with those on a standard diet, they found the
calorie-deprived mice had maintained a more youthful balance of gene
activity.
Exactly how calorie intake affects genes over a lifetime is unknown,
according to Weindruch. He said it is possible that restricting energy
intake results in basic changes in energy metabolism, which in turn
helps regulate gene activity.
Weindruch also noted that a study in Parkinson's patients has suggested
that high calorie intake contributes to the risk for the disease. "These
findings," he said, "provide a link at the molecular level."
SOURCE: Nature Genetics 2000;25:294-297.
Copyright © 2000 Reuters Limited.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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