All:
This is from the NIA's Interventions Testing Program (ITP), their large, multicenter, gold-standard lifespan study to test out potential anti-aging drugs and supplements in normal, healthy, nonobese, non-toxin-fed, genetically-intact, well-cared-for mice; it's the same program that revealed the breakthru' results with rapamycin, but that has more quietly flunked out many other agents in the process.
Add more to the flunk list. In previous studies, they've started the animals off in early adulthood (12 mo); here, they've started them at 4 mo, when they're fully reproductively adult but still growing and developing in part because an agent that *slows down* aging should, ceteris paributs, have a more dramatic effect when started earlier in life.
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The National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program (ITP) was established to evaluate agents that are hypothesized to increase life span and/or health span in genetically heterogeneous mice. Each compound is tested in parallel at three test sites. ... We report here on the results of lifelong treatment of mice, beginning at 4 months of age, with ... green tea extract (GTE), curcumin, oxaloacetic acid ["Benagene"], medium-chain triglyceride oil, and resveratrol ... We reported *previously* that adding RES[veratrol] to the diet starting at 12 months of age did not affect life span (11). However, it was hypothesized that RES, like caloric restriction, might have its greatest effect when started earlier in life (14). Therefore, testing was repeated starting the test diet at 4 months of age. ...
On the assumption that each mouse weighs 30 g and consumes 5 g food/day, the estimated daily doses of these agents would be: RES 50; curcumin 333; GTE 333; MCTO 10,000; and OAA 367 mg/kg body weight/day. ...
*None* of these five agents had a statistically significant effect on life span of male or female mice, by log-rank test, at the concentrations tested, although a secondary analysis suggested that GTE might diminish the risk of *midlife* deaths ["ie, roughly 600–800 days of age" -- actually young-adult] in females only."
It's worth noting that GTE-fed females also weighed significantly less than controls, suggesting some potential for crypto-CR; ther was a NS but apparent lower weight in GTE-fed males, too (Fig 1). Annoyingly, they seem not to have actually weighed the animals' food intake.
Reference
1. Randy Strong, Richard A. Miller, Clinton M. Astle, Joseph A. Baur, Rafael de Cabo, Elizabeth Fernandez, Wen Guo, Martin Javors, James L. Kirkland, James F. Nelson, David A. Sinclair, Bruce Teter, David Williams, Nurulain Zaveri, Nancy L. Nadon, and David E. Harrison.
Evaluation of Resveratrol, Green Tea Extract, Curcumin, Oxaloacetic Acid, and Medium-Chain Triglyceride Oil on Life Span of Genetically Heterogeneous Mice
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci first published online March 26, 2012
DOI: 10.1093/gerona/gls070
Forthcoming PMID: 22451473