Mouse Model to Evaluate Potential Age-Promoting Agents

To identify cancer-causing agents there are well-established mouse models, similar models are not available to readily test and identify age-promoting agents.

Recently, a mouse strain (p16^LUC mice) was developed that can be used to evaluate the transcription of p16^INK4, which is increasingly expressed during aging and in age-associated diseases. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Norman Sharpless and colleagues at the University of North Carolina evaluated potential age-promoting compounds, including arsenic, a high-fat diet, UV light, and cigarette smoke in p16^LUC mice.

About Cancer in Women
Cancer is one of the frequently talked about and most feared disease that falls under the genre of lifestyle diseases that have evolved, rather rapidly, in the past two decades.

The authors found that a high fat diet did not accelerate p16^INK4 expression, but both UV light exposure and cigarette smoke exposure dramatically increased p16^INK4 expression compared to controls that had not been exposed to these age-promoting compounds. This study demonstrates that p16^LUCmice are an appropriate model system for evaluating potential age-promoting compounds.

Source-Eurekalert

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