Speaker
Description
Calorie restriction has shown to be able to extend lifespan in model organisms. Recent epidemiological studies have indicated that similar results can be obtained in humans, without the side effects of calorie restriction, by means of a low animal-protein diet before 65 years of age. The analysis of numerous methylation sites has shown that it is possible to calculate the biological age of a subject and, consequently, to evaluate the rate of ageing. On the other hand, several epigenetic studies have demonstrated the plasticity of the tissue specific methylation profile. In particular, changes in the DNA methylation status have been reported to be among the mechanisms by which age and nutrition intersect each other and, in turn, influence the aging plasticity. On the ground of these results, new analyses have been planned in order to find out the correlation between nutrition and epigenetic variation in order to define the genomic regions which are affected by calorie restriction and/or analogous diet strategies. This may lead to explore the possibility to modulate these epigenetic sites to obtain a deceleration of ageing.
