Ageing (unfortunately) is an inevitable part of our lives but scientists believe there may be a way to slow down the signs.
Researchers from Brigham Young University have found that reducing calorie intake can slow down the rate of ageing – at least, in mice.
The scientists observed that eating fewer calories caused ribosomes – the cell’s protein makers – to slow down, giving them extra time to repair themselves.
They found that a decrease in ribosome production also slowed down the ageing process.
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Lead author John Price explains: “The ribosome is a very complex machine, sort of like your car, and it periodically needs maintenance to replace the parts that wear out the fastest.
“When tyres wear out, you don’t throw the whole car away and buy new ones. It’s cheaper to replace the tyres.”
As part of their study, Price and team observed two groups of mice – with the first having unlimited access to food while the other being restricted to 35% fewer calories. Both groups received all the necessary nutrients for survival.
Price said: “When you restrict calorie consumption, there’s almost a linear increase in lifespan. We inferred that the restriction caused real biochemical changes that slowed down the rate of ageing.”
While Price and his team aren’t the first to make the connection between calories and longer lifespan, researchers say it is the first time ribosome’s role in “facilitating those youth-extending biochemical changes” have been documented.
Ribosomes use 10% to 20% of the cell’s total energy to build all the proteins necessary for the cell to operate and researchers say it is “impractical to destroy an entire ribosome when it starts to malfunction”.
However, repairing individual parts of the ribosome regularly enables them to continue producing high-quality proteins for longer than they would otherwise.
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Price said: “The calorie-restricted mice are more energetic and suffered fewer diseases. And it’s not just that they’re living longer but, because they’re better at maintaining their bodies, they’re younger for longer as well.”
But he warns we shouldn’t be cutting down on food, simply based on this study as the strategy hasn’t been tested on humans.
Price said: “Food isn’t just material to be burned – it’s a signal that tells our body and cells how to respond. We’re getting down to the mechanisms of ageing, which may help us make more educated decisions about what we eat.”
The research is published in the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.
