Department of Nutrition Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Webb 421, 1530 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL, 35294-3360, USA.
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2019 Feb;73(2):172-178. doi: 10.1038/s41430-018-0324-6. Epub 2018 Oct 3.
The objective of this review is to highlight changes in body composition in rodent models as a result of healthy aging in order to enhance translational research. Aging is associated with alterations in body composition, particularly fat mass and fat-free mass, which may be accompanied by adverse health effects, especially nearing middle age to old age. In humans, it is generally understood that fat mass tends to increase while fat-free mass concurrently declines with aging. However, the effect of aging on body composition in rodent models is less well studied, and how these changes compare and contrast with observations in humans has not yet been fully elucidated. Though, it appears as though the constituent-level alterations occur in humans and rodents at different life phases thereby having a potential effect on the outcomes of basic biomedical research. Though highly strain-dependent, this review suggests that FM changes begin at a much earlier life phase in rodents than in humans. Conversely, FFM appears to increase throughout middle age and into old age in rodents, whereas middle age is associated with the initiation the subsequent decline of FFM in humans. Given the essentiality of rodent models in basic biomedical research, careful consideration of these differences in age-related BC findings is imperative when the research is aimed for human translation.
本综述的目的是强调健康衰老导致啮齿动物模型中身体成分的变化，以增强转化研究。衰老与身体成分的改变有关，特别是脂肪量和去脂体重，这可能伴随着不良的健康影响，特别是从中年到老年。在人类中，一般认为脂肪量随着年龄的增长而增加，而去脂体重则同时下降。然而，衰老对啮齿动物模型中身体成分的影响研究得较少，这些变化与人类的观察结果如何比较和对比尚未完全阐明。尽管如此，似乎人类和啮齿动物在不同的生命阶段发生的成分变化会对基础生物医学研究的结果产生潜在影响。尽管高度依赖于品系，但本综述表明，在啮齿动物中，FM 的变化发生在比人类更早的生命阶段。相反，在啮齿动物中，FFM 似乎在中年到老年期间增加，而在人类中，中年与随后 FFM 下降的开始相关。鉴于啮齿动物模型在基础生物医学研究中的重要性，当研究旨在进行人类转化时，必须仔细考虑与年龄相关的 BC 发现的这些差异。
