title: Retardation of cognitive aging by life-long diet restriction: implications for genetic variance.
abstract: Long-term moderate dietary restriction (DR) has been reported to extend life spans, delay the onset and decrease the incidence of a broad spectrum of age-associated diseases; however, its effect on cognition is still unclear. Our previous results indicated that long-term DR failed to retard cognitive and psychomotor aging in the inbred strain, Fischer-344 rats. In the present experiment, an anti-aging effect of DR on various types of cognitive and sensorimotor behaviors was found in F1 hybrid Fischer-344 x Brown Norway (F-344xBN) rats, while no effect of DR was detected in the second parental inbred strain, Brown-Norway (BN) rats. These findings show that the lack of an effect of DR on cognitive aging, which was previously found in Fischer-344 rats, is not a universal phenomenon. Instead, the effect of DR may depend upon the genetic makeup of the animals. Thus, a more diverse genetic milieu, such as in hybrid rats, relative to inbred rats, may increase the susceptibility to an effect of DR on age-related cognitive decline.
authors.affiliation: Neuromnemonics Laboratory, Department of Psychology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. Alicja@jhu.edu
authors.forename: Alicja L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Markowska
authors.forename: Alena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Savonenko
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004032:Diet; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011914:Rats, Inbred BN; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology