title: A living model for obesity and aging research: Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a free-living nematode that has been extensively utilized as an animal model for research involving aging and neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, etc. Compared with traditional animal models, this small nematode possesses many benefits, such as small body size, short lifespan, completely sequenced genome, and more than 65% of the genes associated with human disease. All these characteristics make this organism an ideal living system for obesity and aging studies. This review gives a brief introduction of C. elegans as an animal model, highlights some advantages of research using this model and describes methods to evaluate the effect of treatments on obesity and aging of this organism.
authors: a Department of Food Science , University of Massachusetts , Amherst , Massachusetts , USA.
authors: Peiyi
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3527-7232
authors: P
authors: Shen
authors: a Department of Food Science , University of Massachusetts , Amherst , Massachusetts , USA.
authors: Yiren
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7825-3065
authors: Y
authors: Yue
authors: a Department of Food Science , University of Massachusetts , Amherst , Massachusetts , USA.
authors: Yeonhwa
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9727-0899
authors: Y
authors: Park
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D023421:Models, Animal; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases; D009765:Obesity; D012106:Research
keywords: C. elegans; aging; living model; obesity