Primate CR

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

Apparently, not in the archives previously, is the below from AntiAging Research

Laboratories.

http://www.antiagingresearch.com/caloric_restriction_in_primates.shtml

Caloric Restriction in Primates

At the NIH Animal Center in Poolesville, land, about 75 rhesus and squirrel

monkeys are on diets; they eat 30 percent less than they would normally but get

all

the necessary nutrients. Another 75 monkeys, the control group, are eating as

much

as they want or ad libitum. The differences between the two groups, as they

reach

maturity and begin to age, are expected to provide insights into how caloric

restriction influences life span.

The monkeys that arrived at the Poolesville laboratory in 1987 have responded to

caloric restriction as expected; their maturation, measured by factors such as

skeletal development and onset of puberty, has been delayed by about a year or

year

and a half. This is comparable to the delays in maturation seen in calorically

restricted rodents.

As the monkeys grow into young adulthood and beyond, Ruth and his

colleagues

at the NIA's Gerontology Research Center in Baltimore, where the project is

coordinated, will be monitoring dozens of signs of aging, ranging from immune

response to activity level to anti-oxidant levels to fingernail growth. The

measurements will be compared with those of the monkeys in the control group and

should provide leads to some of the anti-aging mechanisms at work in caloric

restriction.

On a practical level, though, most gerontologists don't expect caloric

restriction

ever to become a widespread means of extending the human life span. What they

hope

to learn from studies of caloric restriction, once its mechanisms are

understood, is

how to improve health and prevent or postpone the diseases of advancing age.

Speculation about how caloric restriction works covers a broad field, reflecting

the

wide range of effects it has in laboratory animals. Because cutting down on

calories

slows metabolism, and free radicals are by-products of metabolism, caloric

restriction may reduce free-radical damage. And because caloric restriction

lowers

body temperature slightly, cells may sustain less genetic damage and repair it

more

readily than at normal body temperature. In addition, scientists speculate that

caloric restriction preserves the capacity of cells to proliferate, that it

moderates the decline in growth hormone, and that it keeps the immune system

functioning at youthful levels.

In fact its effects are so pervasive that some scientists postulate the

existence of

a single, master gene whose expression is influenced by caloric restriction and

which in turn modifies all aging processes. Whether or not this proves correct,

continued work with caloric restriction is expected to uncover much more about

the

mechanisms of aging.

Al Pater, PhD; email: old542000@...

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