Masoro E J
Department of Physiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio 78284-7756.
Aging (Milano). 1993 Aug;5(4):269-75.
Although diet influences basic aging processes as well as age-associated disease processes, diet is either not mentioned or inadequately described in reports of gerontologic studies using animal models. Studies carried out in our laboratory with male F344 rats are a good example of the importance of diet in the use of an animal model for aging research. Nephropathy, resulting in kidney failure, is often an overwhelming disease problem in life span studies using ad libitum fed male F344 rats. However, by appropriate choice of dietary components, nephropathy can be reduced to only one of several disease processes contributing to the death of these ad libitum fed rats. Such diets greatly increase the value of the male F344 rat as a model for aging research. Because almost all rodent species and strains suffer from one or more major age-associated diseases, nutritional conditions should be sought in the case of each to minimize the occurrence of such diseases during an aging study. Restriction of energy intake (often called food restriction or dietary restriction) delays or prevents most age-associated disease processes in a spectrum of rat and mouse strains. It is, therefore, suggested that the dietary restricted rodent be used as the standard or base model for aging research. Moreover, dietary restriction is proving to be a powerful tool for the study of aging processes.
尽管饮食会影响基本的衰老过程以及与年龄相关的疾病过程，但在使用动物模型的老年学研究报告中，饮食要么未被提及，要么描述不充分。我们实验室对雄性F344大鼠进行的研究，很好地说明了饮食在利用动物模型进行衰老研究中的重要性。在对随意进食的雄性F344大鼠进行的寿命研究中，导致肾衰竭的肾病常常是一个严重的疾病问题。然而，通过适当选择饮食成分，肾病可以减少到只是导致这些随意进食大鼠死亡的几种疾病过程之一。这样的饮食极大地提高了雄性F344大鼠作为衰老研究模型的价值。由于几乎所有啮齿动物物种和品系都会患有一种或多种主要的与年龄相关的疾病，因此在每种情况下都应寻求营养条件，以尽量减少衰老研究期间此类疾病的发生。能量摄入限制（通常称为食物限制或饮食限制）可延缓或预防一系列大鼠和小鼠品系中的大多数与年龄相关的疾病过程。因此，建议将饮食受限的啮齿动物用作衰老研究的标准或基础模型。此外，饮食限制正被证明是研究衰老过程的有力工具。
