New research in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal shows for the first time that reducing caloric intake, specifically in the form of glucose, extends the lifespan of human cells.
Going back for a second dessert after your holiday meal might not be the best strategy for living a long, cancer-free life say researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. That’s because they’ve shown exactly how restricted calorie diets — specifically in the form of restricted glucose — help human cells live longer. This discovery, published online (www.fasebj.org) could help lead to drugs and treatments that slow human ageing and prevent cancer. “We would also hope for these studies to lead to improved prevention of cancer as well as many other age-related diseases through controlling calorie intake of specific cell types,” said Trygve Tollefsbol, PhD, a researcher involved in the work.
The experiment Tollefsbol and colleagues used normal human lung cells and precancerous human lung cells that were at the beginning stages of cancer formation. Both sets of cells were grown in the laboratory and received either normal or reduced levels of glucose (sugar). As the cells grew over a period of a few weeks, the researchers monitored their ability to divide, and kept track of how many cells survived over this period. They found that the normal cells lived longer, and many of the precancerous cells died, when given less glucose.
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