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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.02.06.937532

Time-restricted feeding from adulthood to old age improves biconditional associative learning in geriatric rats regardless of macronutrient composition

Hernandez, A. R.·Federico, Q. P.·Burke, S. N.
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Abstract

Declining health and cognition are hallmarks of advanced age that reduce both the quality and length of the lifespan. While caloric restriction has been highlighted as a dietary intervention capable of improving the healthspan by restoring metabolic function in late life, time-restricted feeding and changes in dietary macronutrient composition may be more feasible alternatives with similar health outcomes. To investigate the potential of these two interventions, a pilot cohort of fully mature adult rats were placed on a time-restricted feeding regimen of a ketogenic or micronutrient and calorically matched control diet from 8 to 21 months of age. A third group of rats was permitted to eat standard chow ad libitum. At 22 months, all rats were then placed on time-restricted feeding and tested on a biconditional association task. While the data presented here are preliminary (small sample size of 3-4/diet group), additional animals are currently undergoing the feeding regimen, and will be added into the behavioral studies at a later date. For the current data, regardless of dietary composition, time-restricted-fed rats performed significantly better than ad libitum-fed rats. This observation could not be accounted for by differences in motivation, procedural or sensorimotor impairments, indicating that mid-life dietary interventions capable of preventing metabolic impairments may also serve to prevent age-related cognitive decline.

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Hernandez, A. R., Federico, Q. P., Burke, S. N.. 2020-02-07. Time-restricted feeding from adulthood to old age improves biconditional associative learning in geriatric rats regardless of macronutrient composition. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.06.937532

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