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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.05.31.446397

Longevity interventions temporally scale healthspan in Caenorhabditis elegans

Statzer, C.·Reichert, P.·Dual, J.·Ewald, C. Y.
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Abstract

Human centenarians and longevity mutants of model organisms show lower incidence rates of late-life morbidities than the average population. However, whether longevity is caused by a compression of the portion of life spent in a state of morbidity, i.e., "sickspan," is highly debated even in isogenic C. elegans. Here, we developed a microfluidic device that employs acoustophoretic force fields to quantify the maximum muscle strength and dynamic power in aging C. elegans. Together with different biomarkers for healthspan, we found a stochastic onset of morbidity, starting with a decline in dynamic muscle power and structural integrity, culminating in frailty. Surprisingly, we did not observe a compression of sickspan in longevity mutants but instead observed a temporal scaling of healthspan. Given the conservation of these longevity interventions, this raises the question of whether the healthspan of mammalian longevity interventions is also temporally scaled.

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Statzer, C., Reichert, P., Dual, J., Ewald, C. Y.. 2021-05-31. Longevity interventions temporally scale healthspan in Caenorhabditis elegans. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.31.446397

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