Caloric restriction and redox homeostasis in various regions of aging male rat brain: Is caloric restriction still worth trying even after early-adulthood?: Redox homeostasis and caloric restriction in brain.

Abstract

Despite recent studies have shown that caloric restriction (CR) could improve some functional loss associated with brain aging, the biochemical effects of CR on brain aging are still not well understood on a quantifiable biochemical basis, including whether CR could be protective when started around middle adulthood, when age-related neurodegenerative diseases are thought to set in. Therefore, in the light of more than ever aging societies and increasing neurodegenerative diseases, we aimed to test the biochemical effects of CR on redox homeostasis in different parts of male Sprague-Dawley rat brain by using the biomarkers we consistently validated in our previous work (TOS, PCO, AOPP, AGEs, sRAGE, P-SH, LHPs, 4-HNE, TAS, Cu, Zn-SOD). Our results indicate that oxidative stress biomarkers are lower in CR group, implying a more favorable redox status that has been previously shown to be correlated with better neural function. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: We report that the beneficial effects of caloric restriction (CR) on various brain tissues result in significant improvements in biochemical markers, even though CR is not started in early adulthood. Hence, our select age group provides a sound redox status-related neurochemical understanding for many recent CR studies, where a functional loss was detected at this age.