In the laboratory, they cruise in lazy arcs across the surface of specially prepared laboratory dishes peppered with bacteria. In the wild, they live in soil and feed on bacteria found on decaying plant matter. The worms, which are about 1 millimeter long, normally live about 18 to 20 days. Papsdorf and her colleagues used a tiny roundworm called C. Fats and oils are made up of fatty acids lipids include fats, oils, fatty acids and cholesterol. Saturated fats and trans fats - those that are solid at room temperature - can increase the risk of heart disease and other health complications. In general, most monounsaturated fats, which are found in plant-based foods like avocados, olive oil and nuts, are considered relatively healthy.
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These findings suggest there may be a fat-based strategy to improve human health and longevity.”Īnyone who has struggled to remember the difference between “good cholesterol” and “bad cholesterol” and how to cultivate one over the other will know that the language of fats can be confusing. “It will be fascinating to see whether we see a similar association between lipid droplets and longevity in mammals and humans. “For years, we’ve been very interested in learning how diet influences lifespan,” Brunet said. Papsdorf is the lead author of the research. “The worms with greater numbers of lipid droplets live longer than those with fewer droplets.”īrunet, who is the school’s Michele and Timothy Barakett Professor of Genetics, is the senior author of the study, which was published May 1 in Nature Cell Biology. “The number of lipid droplets in individual worms tells me that animal’s remaining lifespan,” said research scientist Katharina Papsdorf, PhD.
Surprisingly, one of the organelles, known as lipid droplets, served as a de facto crystal ball, predicting with increasing accuracy the number of days each animal would live. This protective effect has a big payoff: Worms fed food rich in oleic acid lived about 35% longer than those consigned to standard worm rations, the researchers found. The researchers learned that one of the fats in the Mediterranean diet, oleic acid, increases the number of two key cellular structures, or organelles, and protects cellular membranes from damage by a chemical reaction called oxidation. “But some studies have shown that specific types of fats, or lipids, can be beneficial.”
“Fats are generally thought to be detrimental to health,” said professor of genetics Anne Brunet, PhD. The finding hints at a complex relationship between diet, fats and longevity. Now researchers led by the Stanford School of Medicine have found one of the first cellular connections between healthy fats - known as monounsaturated fatty acids - and lifespan in laboratory worms. But it hasn’t been clear on a cellular level exactly why the diet is so beneficial. People who follow the Mediterranean diet - rich in fats from olive oil and nuts - tend to live longer, healthier lives than others who chow down primarily on fast food, meat and dairy.
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