Abstract
Under calorie restriction (CR) animals need to lower energy demands. Whether this involves a reduction in cellular metabolism is an issue of contention. We exposed C57BL/6 mice to graded CR for 3 months, measured BMR and dissected out 20 body compartments. From a separate age-matched group (n=57), we built 7 predictive models for BMR. Unadjusted BMR declined with severity of restriction. Comparison of measured and predicted BMR from the simple models suggested suppression occurred. The extent of 'suppression' was greater with increased CR severity. However, when models based on individual organ sizes as predictors were used, the discrepancy between the prediction and the observed BMR disappeared. This suggested 'metabolic suppression' was an artefact of not having a detailed enough model to predict the expected changes in metabolism. Our data have wide implications because they indicate that inferred 'metabolic' impacts of genetic and other manipulations may reflect effects on organ morphology.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 17453-17474 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Oncotarget |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 11 |
Early online date | 11 Feb 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Bibliographical note
We are grateful to the animal house staff for looking after the animals. The work was supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council BBSRC (grants BB/G009953/1 and BB/J020028/1) to JRS and SEM. DD was supported by a studentship from the Centre for Genome Enabled Biology and Medicine, Aberdeen, UK, and CG was supported by a BBSRC EastBio studentship. Joint meetings were funded by a BBSRC China partnering award (BB/JO20028/1).Keywords
- metabolic rate
- dietary restriction
- protein restriction
- calorie restriction
- metabolic suppression
- Gerotarget