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Calorie-restricted monkeys less vulnerable to age-related disease

Jeff Miller/UW-MADISON UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Canto is one of the rhesus monkeys who have been kept on a calorie-restricted diet during a study at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. Canto and the other calorie-restricted monkeys were three times less likely to die of age-related illnesses than monkeys who ate a normal, more calorie-rich, diet. At 27, Canto is one of the oldest surviving members of the 20-year-long calorie-restriction study at the primate research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Published: July 9, 2009

For years many scientists have theorized that restricting their caloric intake could help people ward off age-related ailments such as diabetes, cancer, brain atrophy and heart disease. According to the results of a 20-year study using one of humankind's primate cousins, the theory may be correct.

As the journal Science is reporting today, rhesus monkeys that were kept on a restricted-calorie diet and studied for 20 years by Ricki Colman and her colleagues at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center were roughly three times less likely to die of age-related diseases than monkeys with a normal caloric intake.

After monitoring the rhesus monkeys and determining their normal diet, the Colman-led group began reducing the caloric intake of one group of the primates. The calorie-restricted, or CR, group had its food energy consumption reduced by a total of 30 percent. The reduction was carried out in 10 percent increments over three months.

The researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison left the diet of the control group the same.

At the end of the study, 37 percent of the control group had died of age-related causes, compared to only 13 percent of the CR group monkeys.

When one of the monkeys in the study died it underwent a necropsy by a certified pathologist to determine if it had succumbed to an age-related illness or some other cause.

Scientists often use rhesus monkeys in studying human diseases because they are easy to maintain in laboratory conditions and are closely related anatomically and physiologically to humans. In addition, DNA sequencing has revealed that roughly 93 percent of the genetic material in humans and rhesus monkeys is identical.

Colman and her group began studying calorie restriction in rhesus monkeys in 1989. The lead researcher in the study announced July 8 was Richard Weindruch, professor of medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

The Wisconsin National Primate Research Center receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.

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