Age-associated fasting blood glucose trends differ between mice and monkeys/humans
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Mice, monkeys, and humans have similar body weight trajectories with age
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The association of glucose with survival is inverse for mice versus monkeys/humans
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Mice do not fully recapitulate aging-related glucose metabolism changes of primates
Summary
Aging leads to profound changes in glucose homeostasis, weight, and adiposity, which are considered good predictors of health and survival in humans. Direct evidence that these age-associated metabolic alterations are recapitulated in animal models is lacking, impeding progress to develop and test interventions that delay the onset of metabolic dysfunction and promote healthy aging and longevity. We compared longitudinal trajectories, rates of change, and mortality risks of fasting blood glucose, body weight, and fat mass in mice, nonhuman primates, and humans throughout their lifespans and found similar trajectories of body weight and fat in the three species. In contrast, fasting blood glucose decreased late in life in mice but increased over the lifespan of nonhuman primates and humans. Higher glucose was associated with lower mortality in mice but higher mortality in nonhuman primates and humans, providing a cautionary tale for translating age-associated metabolic changes from mice to humans.
The human data used in this paper are from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). Specific language included in the BLSA consent form does not allow publication in public domain. However, BLSA data are available upon request from the BLSA website [https://www.blsa.nih.gov/] pending approval of the IRB of the National Institutes of Health, the IRB overseeing the BLSA. All requests submitted through the website are routed to the BLSA Data Sharing Proposal Review Committee that oversee all data requests/releases. All murine and nonhuman primate data have been deposited at Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/) and will be publicly available as of the date of publication. The DOI is listed in the key resources table.
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All original code has been deposited at Zenodo and will be publicly available as of the date of publication. The DOI is listed in the key resources table.
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Any additional information required to reanalyze the data reported in this paper is available from the lead contact upon request.
