Author:

Keywords:

Ageing, C. elegans, Healthspan, Fat metabolism

Abstract:

Like any other animal, we humans are subjected to the process of ageing. As we grow older, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain homeostasis and deal with the implications of a deteriorating body. Only recently, research is shifting towards studying healthy lifespan, also called healthspan. Healthspan is defined as the period of lifespan when one is considered healthy, prior to the onset of age-related decline and disease. Based on a GWAS study of normal vs healthily aged individuals, genes were selected and tested in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. Via a tissue-specific RNAi approach, knockdown of C. elegans Acyl-CoA DeHydrogenase genes, acdh-1 and acdh-3, led to an increased lifespan in case of neuronal-only knockdown, but reduced lifespan when knocked down in the rest of the body. According to our metric, healthspan remained unchanged. The metabolic state of acdh mutants will be studied further to unravel the underlying mechanisms.