The Retardation of Aging in Mice by Dietary Restriction: Longevity, Cancer, Immunity and Lifetime Energy Intake

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We sought to clarify the impact of dietary restriction (undernutrition without malnutrition) on aging. Female mice from a long-lived strain were fed after weaning in one of six ways: group 1) a nonpurified diet and libitum; 2) 85 kcal/wk of a purified diet (∼25% restriction); 3) 50 kcal/wk of a restricted purified diet enriched in protein, vitamin and mineral content to provide nearly equal intakes of these essentials as in group 2 (∼55% restriction); 4) as per group 3, but also restricted before weaning; 5) 50 kcal/wk of a vitamin- and mineral-enriched diet but with protein intake gradually reduced over the life span; 6) 40 kcal/wk of the diet fed to groups 3 and 4 (∼65% restriction). Mice from groups 3–6 exhibited mean and maximal life spans 35–65% greater than for group 1 and 20–40% greater than for group 2. Mice from group 6 lived longest of all. The longest lived 10% of mice from group 6 averaged 53.0 mo which, to our knowledge, exceeds reported values for any mice of any strain. Beneficial influences on tumor patterns and on declines with age in T-lymphocyte proliferation were most striking in group 6. Significant positive correlations between adult body weight and longevity occurred in groups 3–5 suggesting that increased metabolic efficiency may be related to longevity in restricted mice. Mice from groups 3–6 ate ∼30% more calories per gram of mouse over the life span than did mice from group 2. These findings show the profound anti-aging effects of dietary restriction and provide new information for optimizing restriction regimes.