{"id":2139,"date":"2011-11-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermont.salk.edu\/news-release\/fruit-fly-intestine-may-hold-secret-to-the-fountain-of-youth\/"},"modified":"2016-01-23T11:45:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-23T19:45:00","slug":"fruit-fly-intestine-may-hold-secret-to-the-fountain-of-youth","status":"publish","type":"disclosure","link":"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/es\/news-release\/fruit-fly-intestine-may-hold-secret-to-the-fountain-of-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"El intestino de la mosca de la fruta podr\u00eda guardar el secreto de la fuente de la juventud"},"content":{"rendered":"

LA JOLLA, CA\u2014Una de las pocas formas fiables de extender la vida de un organismo, ya sea una mosca de la fruta o un rat\u00f3n, es restringir la ingesta de calor\u00edas. Ahora, un nuevo estudio en moscas de la fruta est\u00e1 ayudando a explicar por qu\u00e9 tales dietas m\u00ednimas est\u00e1n relacionadas con la longevidad y ofreciendo pistas sobre los efectos del envejecimiento en el comportamiento de las c\u00e9lulas madre.\n<\/p>\n

\nScientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and their collaborators found that tweaking a gene known as PGC-1, which is also found in human DNA, in the intestinal stem cells of fruit flies delayed the aging of their intestine and extended their lifespan by as much as 50 percent.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Fruit flies and humans have a lot more in common than most people think,” says Leanne Jones<\/a>, an associate professor in Salk’s Laboratorio de Gen\u00e9tica<\/a> and a lead scientist on the project. “There is a tremendous amount of similarity between a human small intestine and the fruit fly intestine.”\n<\/p>\n

\nThe findings of the study, which was a collaboration between researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California, Los Angeles, were published online in Metabolismo celular<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n

\nScientists have long known that calorie restriction, the practice of limiting daily food intake, can extend the healthy lifespan of a range of animals. In some studies, animals on restricted diets lived more than twice as long on average as those on non-restricted diets.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhile little is known about the biological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, studies have shown that the cells of calorie-restricted animals have greater numbers of energy-generating structures known as mitochondria. In mammals and flies, the PCG-1 gene regulates the number of these cellular power plants, which convert sugars and fats from food into the energy for cellular functions.\n<\/p>\n

\"fruit<\/p>\n

In young fruit flies (left), the intestinal tissues are highly organized, as shown by the even distribution of different cell types, each represented by a different color. As flies age, this order breaks down, caused by unregulated stem cell activity and inability to form cells with specialized functions. The Salk scientists and their collaborators discovered that activating the fruit fly version of the PCG-1 gene delayed this aging process, while simultaneously extending lifespan.\n<\/p>\n

Image: Courtesy of Salk Institute for Biological Studies\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nThis chain of connections between the mitochondria and longevity inspired Jones and her colleague to investigate what happens when the PCG-1 gene is forced into overdrive. To do this, they used genetic engineering techniques to boost the activity of the fruit fly equivalent of the PCG-1 gene. The flies (known as Drosophila melanogaster<\/em>) have a short lifespan, allowing the scientists to study aging and longevity in ways that aren’t as feasible in longer-lived organisms such as mice or human.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe researchers found that boosting the activity of dPGC-1, the fruit fly version of the gene, resulted in greater numbers of mitochondria and more energy-production in flies – the same phenomenon seen in organisms on calorie restricted diets. When the activity of the gene was accelerated in stem and progenitor cells of the intestine, which serve to replenish intestinal tissues, these cellular changes correspond with better health and longer lifespan. The flies lived between 20 and 50 percent longer, depending on the method and extent to which the activity of the gene was altered.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Their intestines were beautiful,” says Christopher L. Koehler, a doctoral-student at University of California San Diego who conducts research in Jones’ laboratory. “The flies with the modified gene activity were much more active and robust than the other flies.”\n<\/p>\n

\nPart of the reason for this might be that boosting the fruit fly version of PCG-1 stimulates the stem cells that replenish the intestinal tissues, keeping the flies’ intestines healthier. The findings suggest that the fruit fly version of PCG-1 can act as a biological dial for slowing the aging process and might serve as a target for drugs or other therapies to put the breaks on aging and age-related diseases.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Slowing the aging of a single, important organ – in this case the intestine – could have a dramatic effect on overall health and longevity,” Jones says. “In a disease that affects multiple tissues, for instance, you might focus on keeping one organ healthy, and to do that you might be able to utilize PGC-1.”\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Salk researchers were supported by the Emerald Foundation, the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation<\/a>, la American Cancer Society<\/a>, la California Institute for Regenerative Medicine<\/a> and the Institutos Nacionales de Salud<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nAcerca del Instituto Salk de Estudios Biol\u00f3gicos:<\/strong>
\nEl Instituto Salk de Estudios Biol\u00f3gicos es una de las instituciones de investigaci\u00f3n b\u00e1sica m\u00e1s destacadas del mundo, donde un cuerpo docente de prestigio internacional investiga cuestiones fundamentales de las ciencias de la vida en un entorno \u00fanico, colaborativo y creativo. Centrados tanto en el descubrimiento como en la formaci\u00f3n de las futuras generaciones de investigadores, los cient\u00edficos del Salk realizan contribuciones revolucionarias a nuestra comprensi\u00f3n del c\u00e1ncer, el envejecimiento, el Alzheimer, la diabetes y las enfermedades infecciosas mediante el estudio de la neurociencia, la gen\u00e9tica, la biolog\u00eda celular y vegetal, y otras disciplinas relacionadas.\n<\/p>\n

\nLos logros del cuerpo docente han sido reconocidos con numerosos galardones, entre los que se incluyen premios Nobel y la pertenencia a la Academia Nacional de Ciencias. Fundado en 1960 por el Dr. Jonas Salk, pionero en la vacuna contra la poliomielitis, el Instituto es una organizaci\u00f3n independiente sin fines de lucro y un hito arquitect\u00f3nico.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","faculty":[],"disease-research":[146],"class_list":["post-2139","disclosure","type-disclosure","status-publish","hentry","disease-research-aging-and-regenerative-medicine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFruit fly intestine may hold secret to the fountain of youth - Salk Institute for Biological Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/es\/news-release\/fruit-fly-intestine-may-hold-secret-to-the-fountain-of-youth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fruit fly intestine may hold secret to the fountain of youth - Salk Institute for Biological Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LA JOLLA, CA\u2014One of the few reliable ways to extend an organism’s lifespan, be it a fruit fly or a mouse, is to restrict calorie intake. 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