Resveratrol does not mimic the positive effects of calorie restriction on lifespan in Microcebus murinus

Pifferi F, Terrien J, Marchal J, Dal-Pan A, Djelti F, Hardy I · Communications Biology

The first survival data for chronic resveratrol in a primate, and it separates healthspan from lifespan. Middle-aged performance improved: fewer errors in the Barnes maze (p=0.03), shorter time to target (p=0.01) and a better combined motor score from rotarod and high jump (p=0.03), visible from four years of age. Survival did not follow. Median lifespan was 7.9 years on resveratrol against 6.4 on control, but neither overall nor age-related mortality differed (log-rank p=0.76 and p=0.64) and maximal lifespan was unchanged. Age-related disease caused 13 of 18 deaths on resveratrol and 10 of 15 on control (p=0.96). Serial MRI over four years found age-related grey matter atrophy in the amygdala and in Brodmann areas 13-16, 1-3 and 24 in the resveratrol animals against the septum and amygdala alone in controls, with a stronger focal cortical loss in the retrosplenial area of the resveratrol group.

Population

Male grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus), a primate with a median captive lifespan of 5.7 years, followed from adulthood to natural death

Intervention

Resveratrol 200 mg/kg body weight/day, chronic, in 18 animals

Comparator

15 control animals; both groups fed the same 105 kJ/day

Limitations

Thirty-three animals, males only, one colony, and median lifespan was determined from a single observation per group, which is why a 1.5-year gap sits beside a null log-rank test. A lemur is not a person and no joint was measured. The brain finding is a secondary imaging outcome in 11 treated and 7 control animals and the authors present it as a signal to follow rather than a settled harm.