At the crossroads of longevity and metabolism: the metabolic syndrome and lifespan determinant pathways (original) (raw)
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The Critical Role of Metabolic Pathways in Aging
Diabetes, 2012
Aging is characterized by a deterioration in the maintenance of homeostatic processes over time, leading to functional decline and increased risk for disease and death. The aging process is characterized metabolically by insulin resistance, changes in body composition, and physiological declines in growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and sex steroids. Some interventions designed to address features of aging, such as caloric restriction or visceral fat depletion, have succeeded in improving insulin action and life span in rodents. Meanwhile, pharmacologic interventions and hormonal perturbations have increased the life span of several mammalian species without necessarily addressing features of age-related metabolic decline. These interventions include inhibition of the mammalian target of rapamycin and lifetime deficiency in GH/IGF-1 signaling. However, strategies to treat aging in humans, such as hormone replacement, have mostly failed to achieve their desire...
Integrating Metabolism and Longevity Through Insulin and IGF1 Signaling
Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America, 2013
Understanding how metabolism integrates nutrient homeostasis with life span is a complicated undertaking. The insulin pathway coordinates growth, development, metabolic homoeostasis, fertility and stress resistance, which ultimately influence lifespan. From a clinical perspective, compensatory hyperinsulinemia to overcome systemic insulin resistance is thought to be a healthy goal, because it circumvents to immediate catastrophic consequences of hyperglycemia; however, work in flies, nematodes and mice indicate that excess insulin signaling ultimately damages cellular function and accelerates aging. Maintenance of the central nervous system (CNS) has particular importance for lifespan. Depending upon the exact site, reduced insulin/IGF1 signaling in the CNS can dysregulate peripheral energy homeostasis and metabolism, promote obesity, and extend lifespan. In this review, we explore how genetic manipulations of insulin/IGF1 signaling components are beginning to reveal neuronal circuits which might resolve the central regulation of systemic metabolism from organism longevity. Keywords Aging; central nervous system; insulin/IGF signaling; lifespan; neurodegeneration; metabolism; leptin; energy balance; glucose homeostasis disease (2). By comparison, genetic strategies to reduce insulin/IGF1 signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and rodents has emerged as a reliable means of extending lifespan (3-7). Understanding the relation between insulin 'resistance' and 'reduced' insulin/IGF signaling might provide important insight into the pathology of metabolic disease, its sequelae, and strategies for treatment.
The Interaction between Metabolic Disease and Ageing
Two of the greatest crises that civilisation faces in the 21st century are the predicted rapid increases in the ageing population and levels of metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. A growing amount of evidence now supports the notion that energy balance is a key determinant not only in metabolism but also in the process of cellular ageing. Much of genetic evidence for a metabolic activity-driven ageing process has come from model organisms such as worms and flies where inactivation of the insulin receptor signalling cascade prolongs lifespan. At its most simplistic, this poses a conundrum for ageing in humans – can reduced insulin receptor signalling really promote lifespan and does this relate to insulin resistance seen in ageing? In higher animals, caloric restriction studies have confirmed a longer lifespan when daily calorie intake is reduced to 60% of normal energy requirement. This suggests that for humans, it is energy excess which is a likely driver of metabolic ageing. Interventions that interfere with the metabolic fate of nutrients offer a potentially important target for delaying biological ageing.
Replication of Extended Lifespan Phenotype in Mice with Deletion of Insulin Receptor Substrate 1
PLoS ONE, 2011
We previously reported that global deletion of insulin receptor substrate protein 1 (Irs1) extends lifespan and increases resistance to several age-related pathologies in female mice. However, no effect on lifespan was observed in male Irs1 null mice. We suggested at the time that the lack of any effect in males might have been due to a sample size issue. While such lifespan studies are essential to our understanding of the aging process, they are generally based on survival curves derived from single experiments, primarily due to time and economic constraints. Consequently, the robustness of such findings as a basis for further investigation has been questioned. We have therefore measured lifespan in a second, separate cohort of Irs1 null female mice, and show that, consistent with our previous finding, global deletion of Irs1 significantly extends lifespan in female mice. In addition, an augmented and completed study demonstrates lifespan extension in male Irs1 null mice. Therefore, we show that reduced IRS1-dependent signalling is a robust mechanism through which mammalian lifespan can be modulated.
Biogerontology, 2009
Individual differences in the rate of aging are determined by the efficiency with which an organism transforms resources into metabolic energy thus maintaining the homeostatic condition of its cells and tissues. This observation has been integrated with analytical studies of the metabolic process to derive the following principle: The metabolic stability of regulatory networks, that is the ability of cells to maintain stable concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and other critical metabolites is the prime determinant of life span. The metabolic stability of a regulatory network is determined by the diversity of the metabolic pathways or the degree of connectivity of genes in the network. These properties can be empirically evaluated in terms of transcriptional changes in gene expression. We use microarrays to investigate the age-dependence of transcriptional changes of genes in the insulin signaling, oxidative phosphorylation and glutathione metabolism pathways in mice. Our studies delineate age and tissue specific patterns of transcriptional changes which are consistent with the metabolic stability-longevity principle. This study, in addition, rejects the free radical hypothesis which postulates that the production rate of ROS, and not its stability, determines life span.
2013
Recent evidence suggests that alterations in insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) signaling (IIS) can increase mammalian life span. For example, in several mouse mutants, impairment of the growth hormone (GH)/IGF1 axis increases life span and also insulin sensitivity. However, the intracellular signaling route to altered mammalian aging remains unclear. We therefore measured the life span of mice lacking either insulin receptor substrate (IRS) 1 or 2, the major intracellular effectors of the IIS receptors. Our provisional results indicate that female Irs1 �/ � mice are long-lived. Furthermore, they displayed resistance to a range of age-sensitive markers of aging including skin, bone, immune, and motor dysfunction. These improvements in health were seen despite mild, lifelong insulin
Models of insulin signalling and longevity
2005
Single gene mutations that extend lifespan have drastically changed ageing research because they offer potential answers to the questions of why and how we age. Mutations that lower activity of the insulin and insulin-like growth factor signalling (IIS) pathways extend the lifespan of worms, flies and mice. It is possible, therefore, to learn about human ageing from the conserved features of these long-lived models.
Converging Pathways in Lifespan Regulation
Current Biology, 2009
The processes that determine an organism's lifespan are complex and poorly understood. Yet single gene manipulations and environmental interventions can substantially delay age-related morbidity. In this review, we focus on the two most potent modulators of longevity: insulin/ insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) signaling and dietary restriction. The remarkable molecular conservation of the components associated with insulin/IGF-1 signaling and dietary restriction allow us to understand longevity from a multi-species perspective. We summarize the most recent findings on insulin/IGF-1 signaling and examine the proteins and pathways that reveal a more genetic basis for dietary restriction. Although insulin/IGF-1 signaling and dietary restriction pathways are currently viewed as being independent, we suggest that these two pathways are more intricately connected than previously appreciated. We highlight that numerous interactions between these two pathways can occur at multiple levels. Ultimately, both the insulin/IGF-1 pathway and the pathway that mediates the effects of dietary restriction have evolved to respond to the nutritional status of an organism, which in turn affects its lifespan.