Project description:With the population of older and overweight individuals on the rise in the Western world, there is an ever greater need to slow the aging processes and reduce the burden of age-associated chronic disease that would significantly improve the quality of human life and reduce economic costs. Caloric restriction (CR), is the most robust and reproducible intervention known to delay aging and to improve healthspan and lifespan across species (1); however, whether this intervention can extend lifespan in humans is still unknown. Here we report that rats and humans exhibit similar responses to long-term CR at both the physiological and molecular levels. CR induced broad phenotypic similarities in both species such as reduced body weight, reduced fat mass and increased the ratio of muscle to fat. Likewise, CR evoked similar species-independent responses in the transcriptional profiles of skeletal muscle. This common signature consisted of three key pathways typically associated with improved health and survival: IGF-1/insulin signaling, mitochondrial biogenesis and inflammation. To our knowledge, these are the first results to demonstrate that long-term CR induces a similar transcriptional profile in two very divergent species, suggesting that such similarities may also translate to lifespan-extending effects in humans as is known to occur in rodents. These findings provide insight into the shared molecular mechanisms elicited by CR and highlight promising pathways for therapeutic targets to combat age-related diseases and promote longevity in humans. Percutaneous biopsy specimens of vastus lateralis muscle were taken from 15 Human subjects from a group of middle-aged (58.7±7.4 yrs.), weight-stable members of the Calorie Restriction Society who have been practicing ~30% CR with adequate nutrition (at least 100% of RDI for each nutrient) for an average of 9.6 years and 10 age matched controls that were eating a typical Western diet. Total RNA was extracted from the skeletal muscle using Trizol Reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) following the manufacturer’s instructions, RNA quality and quantity was checked using an Agilent 2100 Bio-analyzer and the RNA 6000 nano-chips (Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA). Total RNA samples were biotin labeled and hybridized to Sentrix Human HT-12, v3 Expression BeadChips (Illumina, San Diego, CA), following Illumina protocols. Arrays were washed, stained and scanned using an Illumina BeadArray 500GX reader. Microarray florescent signals were extracted using the Illumina GenomeStudio Gene Expression software(v1.6.0) and any spots at or below the background were filtered using an Illumina detection p-value of 0.02 and above. The natural log of all remaining scores were used to find the avg and std of each array and the z-score normalization was calculated . Correlation analysis, sample clustering analysis and principal component analysis include all of probes are performed to identify/exclude any possible outliners. The resulting dataset was next analyzed with DIANE 6.0, a spreadsheet based microarray analysis program. Gene set enrichment analysis use gene expression values or gene expression change values for all of the genes in the microarray. Parametric analysis of gene set enrichment (PAGE) was used [pubmed 20682848] for gene set analysis.

Project description:With the population of older and overweight individuals on the rise in the Western world, there is an ever greater need to slow the aging processes and reduce the burden of age-associated chronic disease that would significantly improve the quality of human life and reduce economic costs. Caloric restriction (CR), is the most robust and reproducible intervention known to delay aging and to improve healthspan and lifespan across species (1); however, whether this intervention can extend lifespan in humans is still unknown. Here we report that rats and humans exhibit similar responses to long-term CR at both the physiological and molecular levels. CR induced broad phenotypic similarities in both species such as reduced body weight, reduced fat mass and increased the ratio of muscle to fat. Likewise, CR evoked similar species-independent responses in the transcriptional profiles of skeletal muscle. This common signature consisted of three key pathways typically associated with improved health and survival: IGF-1/insulin signaling, mitochondrial biogenesis and inflammation. To our knowledge, these are the first results to demonstrate that long-term CR induces a similar transcriptional profile in two very divergent species, suggesting that such similarities may also translate to lifespan-extending effects in humans as is known to occur in rodents. These findings provide insight into the shared molecular mechanisms elicited by CR and highlight promising pathways for therapeutic targets to combat age-related diseases and promote longevity in humans. Male Fisher 344 rats (n=54) were randomly assigned to two groups at 2 months of age. One group was kept ad libitum (AL) fed throughout their lifespan while the calorie restriction (CR) group was progressively brought down to a 40% CR. All animals were fed a NIH-31 standard chow (Harlan Teklad, Indianapolis, IN, USA). Rats were singly housed in an environmentally controlled vivarium with unlimited access to water and a controlled photoperiod (12 hr. light;12 hr. dark). Body weights and food intake were recorded biweekly. All rats were maintained between 68-72M-BM-0F according to animal protocols and NIH guidelines. Total RNA was extracted from the vastus lateralis skeletal muscle using Trizol Reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) following the manufacturerM-bM-^@M-^Ys instructions, n=5 from each group. Total RNA samples were biotin labeled and hybridized to RatRef-12 v1 Gene Expression beadchips (Illumina, San Diego, CA) following Illumina protocols. Arrays were washed and scanned using an Illumina BeadArray 500GX reader. Microarray florescent signals were extracted using the Illumina GenomeStudio Gene Expression software(v1.6.0) and any spots at or below the background were filtered using an Illumina detection p-value of 0.02 and above. The natural log of all remaining scores were used to find the avg and std of each array and the z-score normalization was calculated . Correlation analysis, sample clustering analysis and principal component analysis include all of probes are performed to identify/exclude any possible outliners. The resulting dataset was next analyzed with DIANE 6.0, a spreadsheet based microarray analysis program. Gene set enrichment analysis use gene expression values or gene expression change values for all of the genes in the microarray. Parametric analysis of gene set enrichment (PAGE) was used [pubmed 20682848] for gene set analysis. Gene Sets include the MSIG database [Link], Gene Ontology Database [Link], GAD human disease and mouse phenotype gene sets [pubmed: 20092628] were used to explore functional level changes.

Project description:Cultivation methods used to investigate microbial calorie restriction often result in carbon and energy starvation. This study aims to dissect cellular responses to calorie restriction and starvation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by using retentostat cultivation. In retentostats, cells are continuously supplied with a small, constant carbon and energy supply, sufficient for maintenance of cellular viability and integrity but insufficient for growth. When glucose-limited retentostats cultivated under extreme calorie restriction were subjected to glucose starvation, calorie-restricted and glucose-starved cells were found to share characteristics such as increased heat-shock tolerance and expression of quiescence-related genes. However, they also displayed strikingly different features. While calorie-restricted yeast cultures remained metabolically active and viable for prolonged periods of time, glucose starvation resulted in rapid consumption of reserve carbohydrates, population heterogeneity due to appearance of senescent cells and, ultimately, loss of viability. Moreover, during starvation, calculated rates of ATP synthesis from storage carbohydrates were 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than steady-state ATP-turnover rates calculated under extreme calorie restriction in retentostats. Stringent reduction of ATP turnover during glucose starvation was accompanied by a strong down-regulation of genes involved in protein synthesis. These results demonstrate that extreme calorie restriction and carbon starvation represent different physiological states in S. cerevisiae. The yeast was first grown for 14 days under extreme calorie restriction in anaerobic, glucose-limited retentostats (Boender et al., 2009, Appl.Environ.Microbiol., 75: 5607-5614.). Subsequently, starvation was started by terminating the glucose feed. Yeast transcriptional reprogramming in response to calorie restriction and starvation was monitored by microarray analysis. Independent duplicate retentostat cultures, and subsequently starvation, were sampled for transcriptome analysis using Affymetrix microarrays. One time-point was sampled during calorie restriction (T0) and four time points were sampled during the starvation phase 10, 30, 60 and 120 minutes after switching of the feed, resulting in a dataset of 10 arrays.

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Comparison of the long-term effects of calorie restriction without malnutrition on global gene expression profiles of rat and human skeletal muscle

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