Wine extract keeps fat mice healthy

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Wine extract keeps fat mice healthy

November 2, 2006 05:23:07 AM PST

http://health./news/168380;_ylt=AvlXPFbxKosbwt6PEQXc__6mxbAB

Obese mice on a high-fat diet got the benefits of being thin - living healthier,

longer lives - without the pain of dieting when they consumed huge doses of red

wine extract, according to a landmark new study.

It's far too early to know if this would work in people, scientists said. But

several were excited by the findings, calling it promising and even

" spectacular. "

The study by the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging

shows that heavy doses of the red wine ingredient, resveratrol, lowers the rate

of diabetes, liver problems and other fat-related ill effects in obese mice.

Fat-related deaths dropped 31 percent for obese mice on the supplement, compared

to fat mice that got no treatment. The mice that got the wine extract also lived

longer than expected, the study showed.

And astoundingly, the organs of the treated fat mice looked normal when they

shouldn't have, said study lead author Dr. Sinclair of Harvard Medical

School.

" They're chubby but inside they look great, " Sinclair said Wednesday afternoon.

" You have to pinch yourself to make sure that this is all real, but the study

involved 27 different researchers each of whom had a Eureka moment. "

Sinclair said other preliminary work still under way shows the wine ingredient

has promise in extending the lives of normal-sized mice, too.

Sinclair has a financial stake in the research. He is co-founder of a

pharmaceutical firm, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., which is

testing to see if the extract can safely be used to treat people with diabetes.

For years, red wine has been linked to numerous health benefits. But the new

study, published online in the journal Nature on Thursday, shows that mammals

given ultrahigh doses of resveratrol can get the good effects of cutting

calories without actually doing it.

" If we're right about this, it would mean you could have the benefit of

restricting calories without having to feel hungry, " Sinclair said. " It's the

Holy Grail of aging research. "

Even though he called the work " tantalizing, " Dr. Eisenson, director of

the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center urged people not to get too excited.

" All of us who practice medicine have learned that we can't leap from studies in

the lab - particularly in lab animals - to what will happen in humans, " Eisenson

said.

Resveratrol, produced when plants are under stress, is found in the skin of

grapes and in other plants, including peanuts and some berries.

The 55 resveratrol-treated obese mice were on a high-calorie diet - what one

scientist called a " Mc's diet. " Not only were they about as healthy as

normal mice, they were also as agile and active on exercise equipment as their

lean cousins, demonstrating a normal quality of life that was unexpected for

such obese creatures, said study co-author de Cabo of the Institute on

Aging.

" These fat old mice can perform as well on this skill test as young lean mice, "

Sinclair said.

The only major body measurement that didn't improve - aside from weight - was

cholesterol, and that didn't seem to matter in the overall health of the mice,

Sinclair said.

The study is so promising that the aging institute this week is strongly

considering a repeat of the same experiment with rhesus monkeys, a closer match

to humans, said institute director Dr. Hodes.

Hodes cautions that it's too early for people to start taking non-regulated

resveratrol supplements because safety issues haven't been adequately addressed.

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is working on a high-dose resveratrol pill that unlike

unregulated supplements on the market now, would be used as a drug and require

Food and Drug Administration approval, said company chief executive officer Dr.

Christoph Westphal. And that development and federal approval is about five

years away, he said.

Sirtris is aiming the research at diseases of aging, which includes diabetes.

Sinclair's results are so promising that he rushed the study into the science

journal while the obese mice are still alive, not waiting several more weeks or

months until they die. That raises some issues, including specific figures about

mortality, but is understandable, said outside experts. The obese mice still

lived past the median age for mice of their weight.

Even would-be competitors are praising the study.

" It's a fairly spectacular result, " said University of Wisconsin medical

professor Dr. Weindruch, who co-founded another biotech company that

looks at the genetics of aging and drugs that could expand life spans. " People

will go to Mc's and afterwards they'll do super-sized resveratrol. "

" This is fantastic, " said Brown University molecular biology professor

Helfand, who was the first reviewer for the journal Nature and not part of the

team. " This is a historic landmark contribution. "

Helfand said he won't be taking red wine extract supplements - but he has put

his elderly parents on them. Such supplements are available at health food

stores and on-line, but not at dose levels equivalent to what the mice in the

experiment got - roughly equal to 100 bottles of wine a day in humans.

Mice, he said, are good initial test subjects for human drugs because their

bodies function similarly to humans in many ways. However, the differences

between mouse and man can prove crucial, he noted.

Sinclair said he takes resveratrol supplements, but doesn't recommend it for

others.

Resveratrol works by spurring activity and regrowth in cells' mitochondria,

which Sinclair called " the energy powerhouses of the cell. "

Some scientists, such as Weindruch and Hodes, worry that the research may

encourage people to forget about their diets and wait for a red wine cure-all

that may never come.

" It's not an excuse to overeat, " Sinclair said. But he added that for mice at

least, this shows you can be " fat, happy, healthy and vigorous. "