Jay GW

Could antioxidants add years to your life? It's a controversial topic, say researchers who recently tested the theory in mice.

Peter Rabinovitch, MD, PhD, and colleagues don't have the final answer. But they did find that mice that made more of an antioxidant called catalase lived longer than normal.

How much extra time did the mice get? About five months, on average -- an 18.5% increase in life span for a mouse, says the study.

Heart disease, cataract development, and other signs of age-related damage were delayed or reduced, the researchers report in Science Express, the advance online edition of Science.

The mice in Rabinovitch's study didn't eat a special diet or gobble antioxidant supplements. Instead, their genes were manipulated to make more catalase than usual.

"These results support the free radical theory of aging," write the researchers.

They also found that mitochondria -- the energy generator in each cell -- may be an important source of free radicals.

http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/105/107858.htm

Ghost Of Lectricity

This is an interesting approach to looking at Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in animals. Most of the approaches have been feeding mice or humans diets rich in antioxidants. As you may know the results of some studies have actually shown that high doses of antioxidants in humans do more harm than good. Hopefully increasing antioxidant enzyme levels will allow cells more control over their antioxidant systems.