Mice engineered to produce antioxidant enzyme live longer

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http://news./s/nm/20050505/hl_nm/science_lifespan_dc

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> http://news./s/nm/20050505/hl_nm/science_lifespan_dc

From reading the article it would seem that this is another example of

mice living longer, but compared to what? The article says the

genetically engineered mice lived about 20% longer, or 5 months. That

would put the lifespan of the " normal " mice at 25 months and the

engineered strain at 30 months. If I understand things correctly that's

not a very long lived strain. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm

wrong but I believe the maximum lifespan of most mice species is about

36 months, isn't that right? So this demonstrates that if you have a

strain of mice that are bred to be short lived, you can potentially

extend their lifespan by 20% through genetic engineering, but they

won't live as long as true " normal " members of their species.