Early melatonin partially delays gut aging in mice
Giving the antioxidant melatonin to 16-month-old mice reduced oxidative stress and slowed degenerative changes in the digestive tract.
Limit: Gut aging was assessed partly through connexin 43 expression, a candidate morphological indicator
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In an animal experiment, researchers examined age-related changes in the digestive tracts of mice. As the animals aged, oxidative stress, an imbalance involving potentially damaging reactive oxygen molecules, progressively increased. Levels of connexin 43, a protein that helps neighboring cells communicate, gradually declined in the mesothelium, the layer of cells covering the gut’s outer surface. The researchers found no detectable loss of these cells. The protein’s decline began at 16 months of age, before the loss of gut nerve cells and specialized gut pacemaker cells. Giving the antioxidant melatonin to 16-month-old mice reduced oxidative stress, lessened the decline in connexin 43 and reduced degenerative changes in the digestive tract.
Why it matters
The timing of antioxidant interventions in aging remains controversial. These findings suggest that early digestive aging involves reversible functional changes that timely antioxidant interventions might help delay.
Caveats
This was an experiment in mice, not a study in people. The abstract does not report the melatonin dose or how long treatment lasted.
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The paper
Early melatonin supplementation partially delays gastrointestinal aging
Capital Medical University; University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta Molecular Basis of Disease, Jul 1, 2026
