Large doses of a red wine ingredient can ward off many of the vagaries of aging in mice who begin taking it at midlife, according to a new report published online on July 3rd in Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication. Those health improvements of the chemical known as resveratrol—including cardiovascular benefits, greater motor coordination, reduced cataracts and better bone density—come without necessarily extending the animals’ lifespan.

Sinclair and de Cabo’s team further show evidence that resveratrol mimics the beneficial effects of eating fewer calories. In mice, they found that resveratrol induces gene activity patterns in multiple tissues that parallel those induced by dietary restriction and every-other-day feeding.

" From a health point of view, the quality of life of these mice at the end of their days is much better," said Rafael de Cabo of the National Institute on Aging. It suggests that resveratrol may "extend productive independent life, rather than just extending life span."

" I was most surprised by how broad the effects were in the mice," added David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School. "Usually, you focus on slowing down or ameliorating one disease at a time. In this case, resveratrol influences a whole series of seemingly unrelated diseases associated with aging." Sinclair said he expects some of the effect seen in the mice would have even greater impact if they hold in humans. That’s because, unlike people, mice usually don’t die as a result of heart disease, or suffer from weakening bones.

Earlier studies showed that reducing calorie intake by 30%????%, or eating a nutritious diet every other day, can delay the onset of age-related diseases, improve stress resistance, and decelerate functional decline, the researchers said. Although dietary restriction has beneficial effects in humans, such a diet is unlikely to be widely adopted and would pose a significant risk to the frail, critically ill, or the elderly.

Therefore, the researchers are on a quest for "dietary restriction mimetic" compounds that provide some of the benefits without cutting calories. One contender has been compounds like resversatrol that activate SIRT1, a protein linked to long life in many species, from yeast to mammals.

Indeed, studies have shown resveratrol can extend the lives of yeast, worms, flies and fish. It also improves the health and survival of obese mice fed a high-calorie diet. Now, de Cabo and Sinclair show that those effects do indeed seem to take place by inducing the physiology of dietary restriction. They placed one-year-old mice on a standard control diet or every-other-day feeding with or without resveratrol.

Resveratrol produced changes in the gene expression profiles of key metabolic tissues, including liver and muscle, that closely resemble those induced by dietary restriction, they report. Overall, the animals’ health improved under all dietary conditions, as reflected by a reduction of osteoporosis, cataracts, vascular dysfunction, and declines in motor coordination. However, the mice lived longer only when they were fed a high-calorie diet, consistent with earlier reports.

" In conclusion, long-term resveratrol treatment of mice can mimic transcriptional changes induced by dietary restriction and allow them to live healthier, more vigorous lives," they wrote. "In addition to improving insulin sensitivity and increasing survival in [high-calorie fed] mice, we show that resveratrol improves cardiovascular function, bone density, and motor coordination, and delays cataracts, even in nonobese rodents. Together, these findings confirm the feasibility of finding an orally available dietary restriction mimetic."

Resveratrol treatment is already being tested in clinical trials for type II diabetes, the researchers noted, and more potent molecules with effects similar to resveratrol are also under development.

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Toronto, ON, Canada – Low maternal vitamin D levels during pregnancy may affect primary tooth calcification, leading to enamel defects, which are a risk factor for early-childhood tooth decay. Today, during the 86th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research, investigators from the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg and Victoria) present the results of a study they conducted to determine the vitamin D status of pregnant women, the incidence of enamel defects and early-childhood tooth decay among their infants, and the relationship with pre-natal vitamin D levels.

Two hundred six pregnant women in their second trimester participated in the study. Only 21 women (10.5%) were found to have adequate vitamin D levels. Vitamin D concentrations were related to the frequency of milk consumption and pre-natal vitamin use. The investigators examined 135 infants (55.6% male) at 16.1 ± 7.4 months of age, and found that 21.6% of them had enamel defects, while 33.6% had early-childhood tooth decay. Mothers of children with enamel defects had lower, but not significantly different, mean vitamin D concentrations during pregnancy than those of children without defects.

However, mothers of children with early-childhood tooth decay had significantly lower vitamin D levels than those whose children were cavity-free. Infants with enamel defects were significantly more likely to have early-childhood tooth decay.

This is the first study to show that maternal vitamin D levels may have an influence on primary teeth and the development of early-childhood tooth decay.

Copyright 2008 Eurekalert. All Rights Reserved

It was funded by the Manitoba Medical Service Foundation, the Manitoba Institute of Child Health, the Dentistry Canada Fund, the University of Manitoba, and Dairy Farmers of Canada.

About the International Association for Dental Research

The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) is a non-profit organization with more than 10,800 individual members worldwide, dedicated to: (1) advancing research and increasing knowledge to improve oral health, (2) supporting the oral health research community, and (3) facilitating the communication and application of research findings for the improvement of oral health worldwide.

To learn more about the IADR, visit www.iadr.org.

This is a summary of an abstract entitled "Influence of Maternal Vitamin D Status on Infant Oral Health", by R. Schroth et al., of the University of Manitoba, Canada, to be presented at 11:45 a.m. on Friday, July 4, 2008, in Room 705 of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada, during the 86th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research.

 Toronto, ON, Canada – Dental researchers at the University of Washington have reported a significant reduction of tooth decay in toddlers who were treated with the topical syrup xylitol, a naturally occurring non-cavity-causing sweetener. Their results were presented today during the 86th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research.

In a recent clinical trial in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, children 6 to 15 months old were given oral doses of xylitol in fruit-flavored syrup daily to determine whether the substance can prevent early-childhood tooth decay, or "caries".

Researchers reported that nearly 76% of the children in the group who received xylitol were free of tooth decay by the end of the study, compared with 48% of the children in the group that did not receive the substance.

The Marshall Islands in the Pacific were chosen for the study because it is an area where childhood tooth decay is a serious public health problem. The average child entering Head Start at age 5 has 6.8 cavities—two to three times the rate in a typical mainland community. Researchers came from the Northwest/Alaska Center to Reduce Oral Health Disparities and the Department of Dental Public Health Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Xylitol can be administered in the form of chewing gum, lozenges, or syrup. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved xylitol’s use in food since 1963 and classifies the substance as safe.

According to researchers, at the end of the trial nearly 76% of the children in the study group were caries-free, compared with 48% in a comparable group that did not receive treatment.

Xylitol is a five-carbon sugar alcohol that is used as a sugar substitute.

Copyright 2008 Eurekalert! All Rights Reserved

Funding was provided by HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.

About the International Association for Dental Research

The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) is a non-profit organization with more than 10,800 individual members worldwide, dedicated to: (1) advancing research and increasing knowledge to improve oral health, (2) supporting the oral health research community, and (3) facilitating the communication and application of research findings for the improvement of oral health worldwide.

To learn more about the IADR, visit www.iadr.org.

This is a summary of an abstract entitled "Xylitol Topical Oral Syrup Prevents Early Childhood Caries: a RCT", by P. Milgrom et al., of the University of Washington, Seattle, and the Ministry of Health, Marshall Islands, to be presented at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday, July 5, 2008, in Hall D-E of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada, during the 86th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research