Resveratrol Shows Positive Age Related Effects
In addition to cardiovascular function, the scientists found resveratrol to have a variety of positive effects on other age-related problems in mice:
Treated mice tended to have better bone health, as measured by thickness, volume, mineral content and density, and bending stiffness compared to the non-treated control group.
At 30 months of age, resveratrol-treated mice were found to have reduced cataract formation, a condition found to increase with age in control-group mice.
Resveratrol enhanced balance and motor coordination in aged animals. Scientists found significant improvement in performance at 21 and 24 months versus 15 months in the resveratrol-treated mice but not in the untreated mice.
Resveratrol partially mimicked the effects of dietary restriction on the gene expression profiles of liver, skeletal muscle and adipose (fatty) tissue in mice.
Along with determining the effect of resveratrol on the health of mice, scientists also studied the effect of resveratrol on longevity.
“We found that while quality of life improved with resveratrol, the compound did not significantly affect overall survival or maximum lifespan for mice on a standard diet, compared to mice on the same diet without resveratrol,” said de Cabo.
Resveratrol did not have a significant effect on lifespan in animals fed standard chow, suggesting that the intervention did not affect all aspects of the basic aging process. Mice on a high-calorie diet without resveratrol lived the shortest length of time and mice on an every-other-day regimen lived the longest, regardless of resveratrol treatment. However, for mice on a high-calorie diet, mean and maximum lifespan increased for mice on resveratrol when compared with the control mice. Researchers found that resveratrol’s effects on longevity could be completely uncoupled from changes in body weight, meaning that mice on a high-calorie diet with resveratrol did not necessarily lose weight but did experience a longer (and healthier) life than mice on the same high-calorie diet not taking resveratrol. They speculate that improved cardiovascular health and reduced fatty changes in the liver may have contributed to the increased lifespan of resveratrol-treated mice.
Researchers still have much to learn before resveratrol can be recommended for human use. Basic questions of safety and biological effect in humans remain to be studied experimentally.
“We are learning a great deal about how resveratrol affects the health and survival of mammals,” said Sinclair. “Continued study of calorie restriction mimetics such as resveratrol may eventually point the way to new medicines to treat diseases of aging.”
In addition to scientists from the NIA and Harvard Medical School, researchers from the following institutions collaborated in this study: New York Medical College, Valhalla, N.Y.; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; University of Sydney in Australia; Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia; University of California, San Diego, La Jolla; Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, N.Y.; University of Cincinnati, Ohio; University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and Audie Murphy VA Hospital, San Antonio, Texas; Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain; Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, La.; University of Washington, Seattle; and Sirtris Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Mass., a company founded by Harvard University co-lead author Sinclair.
De Cabo is a scientist in the NIA’s Intramural Research Program. In addition, the research was funded by grants from the NIA, the primary supporter of the work, as well as grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the National Eye Institute; and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the NIH. The Ellison Medical Research Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Australian and Spanish governments and Paul F. Glenn and The Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging also provided support to members of the research team.