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[SANET-MG] red wine is medicine
February 07, 2006 Scientific American
Grape Compound Prolongs Life, Fish Study Concludes
An organic compound found in grapes, berries and some nuts extended the
life span of fish in a recent study. Nothobranchius furzeri lives an
average of nine weeks in captivity but lacing its food with resveratrol
boosted longevity by more than 50 percent.
Previous research had shown that resveratrol prolongs the life span of
yeast and insects, but this study marks the first proof of its antiaging
effects in a vertebrate. Neuroscientist Alessandro Cellerino and his
colleagues at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, tested
different doses of the compound on more than 150 fish. Thirty fish
received a small dose in their regular food, 60 received a medium dose
and 20 received a large helping; meanwhile, 47 control fish enjoyed
their insect larvae meals sans resveratrol. The control and low-dose
fish saw no benefits, but even the fish who received only a middling
amount of the compound lived up to 27 percent longer.
The resveratrol-fed fish also showed more vivaciousness, swimming more
than their counterparts even as they aged up to 10 weeks. Old fish that
ate resveratrol were able to complete tasks, such as remembering to move
from one compartment to another when a light was flashed, much better
than the controls did. And dissection showed that the neurons in their
brains did not decay as fast as those of the untreated fish did, leading
the researchers to speculate that resveratrol could be prolonging life
by protecting the central nervous system.
The compound, particularly concentrated in red wines such as pinot noir,
seems to confer protective effects across a wide range of animals,
leading to hopes that it might prove a potent boon for humans as well.
"The mechanisms by which resveratrol prolongs life span in model
organisms are not clear," Cellerino's team writes in the paper
presenting the findings, published today in Current Biology. "But the
observation that its supplementation with food extends vertebrate life
span and delays motor and cognitive age-related decline could be of high
relevance for the prevention of aging-related diseases in the human
population."
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