Lifelong restriction of dietary branched-chain amino acids has sex-specific benefits for frailty and lifespan in mice
Abstract
Protein restricted (PR) diets promote health and longevity in many species. While the precise components of a PR diet that mediate the beneficial effects to longevity have not been defined, we recently showed that many metabolic effects of PR can be attributed to reduced dietary levels of the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) leucine, isoleucine, and valine. Here, we demonstrate that restricting dietary BCAAs increases the survival of two different progeroid mouse models, delays frailty and promotes the metabolic health of wild-type C57BL/6J mice when started in midlife, and leads to a 30% increase in lifespan and a reduction in frailty in male, but not female, wild-type mice when fed lifelong. Our results demonstrate that restricting dietary BCAAs can increase healthspan and longevity in mice, and suggest that reducing dietary BCAAs may hold potential as a translatable intervention to promote healthy aging.
From the paper
- Events by group
In agreement with this significant difference in frailty, we observed that lifelong consumption of a Low BCAA diet significantly increased lifespan, with a 31.8% increase in median lifespan relative to Control-fed males, and a 12.3% increase in maximum lifespan (p = 0.0251).
Results, Low BCAA diet feeding throughout life extends male lifespan
Quoted word for word from the full text on PubMed Central.
The paper
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Nature Aging, 14 Jan 2021, Open access, accepted manuscript
