Nicotinamide mononucleotide reduced lens stiffness in mice
Lens stiffness measured 11.9 kilopascals at the higher dose, versus 17.9 in mice with diet-induced metabolic syndrome given no active compound.
16 weeks, randomized
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In a randomized animal experiment, researchers studied 96 male and female C57BL/6J mice, using a high-fat, high-sucrose diet to induce metabolic syndrome—a cluster of metabolic health problems. They tested the compound nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) at 150 or 300 milligrams per kilogram of body weight daily. At week 16, 94 mice had valid lens-stiffness measurements.
Lens stiffness measured 7.4 kilopascals in controls and 17.9 in mice with metabolic syndrome. NMN reduced it to 14.8 at the lower dose and 11.9 at the higher dose. NMN also increased fecal butyrate, a substance produced by gut microbes. Depleting gut microbes with antibiotics weakened but did not eliminate the higher-dose eye response. Transferring fecal microbes from NMN-treated donors partly shifted microbial chemical products and lens-stiffness measures toward the pattern seen with NMN.
Why it matters
Lens stiffening contributes to age-related problems with the eye’s ability to focus. This experiment addressed whether metabolic syndrome and gut-microbe changes are linked to that process.
Caveats
Lens stiffness is a mechanical measure; the abstract does not report vision outcomes. These mouse results do not show whether NMN benefits people.
From the paper
- Animals
A total of 96 mice were randomized into the eight prespecified groups, with 12 mice per group and equal sex distribution at allocation.
Results, 3.1 Animal retention, model confirmation, and endpoint completeness
- Result
MetS mice showed a marked increase in lens apparent Young’s modulus relative to CON (17.9 ± 2.1 vs. 7.4 ± 1.3 kPa; unadjusted mean difference +10.5 kPa, Welch 95% CI: 9.0 to 12.0; Holm-adjusted p = 9.1 × 10 −11 ).
Results, 3.3 NMN reduced lens stiffening and lens biochemical injury
- Limitation
First, the study used 16S rRNA sequencing rather than shotgun metagenomics, and the revised report does not provide a complete taxon-level differential abundance analysis, longitudinal taxon trajectories, donor-enriched ASV transfer, sex-stratified microbial responses, or functional pathway evidence …
Quoted word for word from the full text on frontiersin.org.
- Nicotinamide mononucleotide
- Fecal microbiota transplantation
- AGE–RAGE signaling
- Extracellular matrix remodeling
- Metabolic syndrome
- Mice
Nicotinamide mononucleotide is part of David Sinclair's daily regimen in LifespanMore supplements
The paper
Shenzhen Bright Eye Hospital; Sun Yat-sen University
Frontiers in Microbiology, Nov 2, 2026, Open access, CC BY
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