New year, new vitamin C discovery: It 'cures' mice with accelerated aging diseas

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New year, new vitamin C discovery: It 'cures' mice with accelerated aging

disease

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/foas-nyn010410.php

New research in the FASEB Journal reports vitamin C reverses abnormalities

caused by Werner syndrome gene, including cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart

failure and high cholesterol

A new research discovery published in the January 2010 print issue of the FASEB

Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) suggests that treatments for disorders that

cause accelerated aging, particularly Werner's syndrome, might come straight

from the family medicine chest. In the research report, a team of Canadian

scientists show that vitamin C stops and even reverses accelerated aging in a

mouse model of Werner's syndrome, but the discovery may also be applicable to

other progeroid syndromes. People with Werner's syndrome begin to show signs of

accelerated aging in their 20s and develop age-related diseases and generally

die before the age of 50.

" Our study clearly indicates that a healthy organism or individuals with no

health problems do not require a large amount of vitamin C in order to increase

their lifespan, especially if they have a balanced diet and they exercise, " said

Michel Lebel, Ph.D., co-author of the study from the Centre de Recherche en

Cancerologie in Quebec, Canada. " An organism or individual with a mutation in

the WRN gene or any gene affected by the WRN protein, and thus predisposes them

to several age-related diseases, may benefit from a diet with the appropriate

amount of vitamin C. "

Scientists treated both normal mice and mice with a mutation in the gene

responsible for Werner's syndrome (WRN gene) with vitamin C in drinking water.

Before treatment, the mice with a mutated WRN gene were fat, diabetic, and

developing heart disease and cancer. After treatment, the mutant mice were as

healthy as the normal mice and lived a normal lifespan. Vitamin C also improved

how the mice stored and burned fat, decreased tissue inflammation and decreased

oxidative stress in the WRN mice. The healthy mice did not appear to benefit

from vitamin C.

" Vitamin C has become one of the most misunderstood substances in our medicine

cabinets and food, " said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB

Journal. " This study and others like it help explain how and why this chemical

can help to defend some, but certainly not all, people from premature

senescence. "