Abstract
Getting a grip on how we may age healthily is a central interest of biogerontological research. To this end, a number of academic teams developed platforms for life- and healthspan assessment in Caenorhabditis elegans. These are very appealing for medium- to high throughput screens, but a broader implementation is lacking due to many systems relying on custom scripts for data analysis that others struggle to adopt. Hence, user-friendly recommendations would help to translate raw data into interpretable results. The aim of this communication is to streamline the analysis of data obtained by the WorMotel, an economically and practically appealing screening platform, in order to facilitate the use of this system by interested researchers. We here detail recommendations for the stepwise conversion of raw image data into activity values and explain criteria for assessment of health in C. elegans based on locomotion. Our analysis protocol can easily be adopted by researchers, and all needed scripts and a tutorial are available in S1 and S2 Files.
Highlights
While a bliss for individuals in good health, the continued increase in human life expectancy is associated with an increased prevalence of age-related diseases, warning our societies to tackle this socio-economic challenge
Diverse research teams worked towards alleviating the labor-intensive aspects of C. elegans-based studies of longevity and aging
The exact effects of genetic interventions on the lifespan of C. elegans vary somewhat in high-throughput [17] screens and between different labs [25], but daf-2 consistently leads to longevity, while daf-16 consistently shortens lifespan
Summary
While a bliss for individuals in good health, the continued increase in human life expectancy is associated with an increased prevalence of age-related diseases, warning our societies to tackle this socio-economic challenge. Amelioration of the quality of life in aged populations will be an important task in years to come. It is well understood in the research field that the concept of being healthy is much more ambiguous than the concept of being alive, and different individuals have a different perception of what is understood as ‘being healthy’ [1]. Healthspan is generally described as the period in life during which the organism is in good health and free from disease [2]. Grip strength, gait analysis and ability to perform daily tasks (e.g. bathing) are often used as criteria for good health [3,4,5]
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