Aging and J Nutr, 2010 from Nutrition Investigator Roc –See this, longer synopses, and links to published articles below or at Nutrition investigator.

SYNOPSES OF ARTICLES THIS MONTH

From SCIENCE 3 Dec 2010 pg 1303 -The Curious Case of the Backwardly Aging Mouse – “In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” an old man gets younger with each passing day. Now a team has used genetic engineering to accomplish something similarly curious in mice. Scientists don’t fully understand what triggers aging, but many suspect the gradual shrinking of telomeres, the protective DNA caps on the end of chromosomes. The telomeres shrink as cells divide, and telomerase, the enzyme that maintains the caps, isn’t typically active in adult tissues.” At Harvard scientists first genetically engineered mice to lack the telomerase gene. The animals aged prematurely and died at about 6 months—mice usually live for 3 years. Then the team created a new batch of mice with the same infirmity but with a telomerase gene activated by a certain drug. The researchers let these mice prematurely age, then at 6 months they switched on the telomerase gene. The burst of telomerase production spurred almost total recovery. It remains to be seen if aging can be delayed in a human. See http://scim.ag/aging-mouse

 From J Nutrition Nov, 2010

  1. Whole grain foods lower LDL, bad cholesterol
  2. Rye Whole Grain and Bran Intake Compared with Refined Wheat Decreases Urinary C-Peptide, Plasma Insulin, and Prostate Specific Antigen in Men with Prostate Cancer– We conclude that whole grain and bran from rye resulted in significantly lower plasma PSA compared with a cellulose-supplemented refined wheat diet in patients with prostate cancer. The effect may be related to inhibition of prostate cancer progression caused by decreased exposure to insulin, as indicated by plasma insulin and urinary C-peptide excretion.
  3. Leucine stimulates muscle growth– Leucine is a branched chain amino acid available in supplements (to order) that may help grow muscles. Protein synthesis and eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) activation are increased in skeletal muscle of neonatal pigs parenterally infused with amino acids. Leucine appears to be the most effective single amino acid to trigger these effects.
  4. Low protein (LP) diet during pregnancy stunts offspring– By the end of the lactation period, offspring of dams fed the LP diet had stunted growth in both experiments.

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“Modern science is advancing at an unprecedented rate, and the amount of scientific data is doubling every year.” -Raddick et al, Science 3298:1028 (2010)