A deficiency of taurine -- a nutrient produced in the body and found in many foods -- is a driver of aging in animals, according to a new study led by Columbia researchers and involving dozens of aging researchers around the world.
The same study also found that taurine supplements can slow down the aging process in worms, mice, and monkeys and can even extend the healthy lifespans of middle-aged mice by up to 12%.
The study was published June 8 in Science.
"For the last 25 years, scientists have been trying to find factors that not only let us live longer, but also increase healthspan, the time we remain healthy in our old age," says the study's leader, Vijay Yadav, PhD, assistant professor of genetics & development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
"This study suggests that taurine could be an elixir of life within us that helps us live longer and healthier lives."
Anti-aging molecules within us
Over the past two decades, efforts to identify interventions that improve health in old age have intensified as people are living longer and scientists have learned that the aging process can be manipulated.
Many studies have found that various molecules carried through the bloodstream are associated with aging. Less certain is whether these molecules actively direct the aging process or are just passengers going along for the ride. If a molecule is a driver of aging, then restoring its youthful levels would delay aging and increase healthspan, the years we spend in good health.
Taurine first came into Yadav's view during his previous research into osteoporosis that uncovered taurine's role in building bone. Around the same time, other researchers were finding that taurine levels correlated with immune function, obesity, and nervous system functions.
"We realized that if taurine is regulating all these processes that decline with age, maybe taurine levels in the bloodstream affect overall health and lifespan," Yadav says.
Taurine declines with age, supplementation increases lifespan in mice
First, Yadav's team looked at levels of taurine in the bloodstream of mice, monkeys, and people and found that the taurine abundance decreases substantially with age. In people, taurine levels in 60-year-old individuals were only about one-third of those found in 5-year-olds.
"That's when we started to ask if taurine deficiency is a driver of the aging process, and we set up a large experiment with mice," Yadav says.
Source: ScienceDaily
No comments:
Post a Comment