Sugar-derived AGEs accelerate pharyngeal pumping rate and increase the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

All living organisms are normally undergoing aging. Dietary habits constitute the main environmental factor that may accelerate or decelerate this process. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are constituents of dietary products that are consumed daily, such as bread and milk. Although AGEs have been widely regarded as toxic agents, recent studies seem to contradict this view: they either find no adverse effects of AGEs or even attribute beneficial properties to them. The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of sugar-derived AGEs on organismal lifespan using as a model the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Exposure to sugar-derived AGEs prolonged the lifespan of wild type animals; this lifespan extension was accompanied by an enhanced pharyngeal pumping rate. We demonstrate that elevation of the pharyngeal pumping rate depends on W06A7.4 and eat-4 expression, as well as on daf-16, which encodes a FOXO family transcription factor. Our results suggest that sugar-derived AGEs modulate the lifespan of C. elegans at least in part through transcriptional regulation of pharyngeal pumping throughout the animals’ lifespan.

Keywords:

• Advanced glycation end products
• aging
• C. elegans
• lifespan extension
• pharyngeal pumping

Acknowledgements

Nematode strains used in this study were provided by the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, supported by the NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Research from N.C. Lab is currently cofinanced by the European Union and Greek National Funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH – CREATE – INNOVATE [project code: T1EDK-00353 and T1EDK-01610] as well by the Project “STHENOS-b” [MIS 5002398], which is funded by the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” [NSRF 2014-2020] and cofinanced by Greece and the EU (European Regional Development Fund). N.P. receives a PhD fellowship from Empirikion Foundation. JAT is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III [CIBERobn CB12/03/30038]. This article is based upon work from COST Action NutRedOx-CA16112 supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).