Elevated branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are associated with obesity and insulin resistance. How long-term dietary BCAAs impact late-life health and lifespan is unknown. Here, we show that when dietary BCAAs are varied against a fixed, isocaloric macronutrient background, long-term exposure to high BCAA diets leads to hyperphagia, obesity and reduced lifespan. These effects are not due to elevated BCAA per se or hepatic mammalian target of rapamycin activation, but instead are due to a shift in the relative quantity of dietary BCAAs and other amino acids, notably tryptophan and threonine. Increasing the ratio of BCAAs to these amino acids results in hyperphagia and is associated with central serotonin depletion. Preventing hyperphagia by calorie restriction or pair-feeding averts the health costs of a high-BCAA diet. Our data highlight a role for amino acid quality in energy balance and show that health costs of chronic high BCAA intakes need not be due to intrinsic toxicity but instead are a consequence of hyperphagia driven by amino acid imbalance.

While the liver demonstrates remarkable resilience during aging, there is growing evidence that it undergoes all the cellular hallmarks of aging, which increases the risk of liver and systemic disease. The aging process in the liver is driven by alterations of the genome and epigenome that contribute to dysregulation of mitochondrial function and nutrient sensing pathways, leading to cellular senescence and low-grade inflammation. These changes promote multiple phenotypic changes in all liver cells (hepatocytes, liver sinusoidal endothelial, hepatic stellate and Küpffer cells) and impairment of hepatic function. In particular, age-related changes in the liver sinusoidal endothelial cells are a significant but under-recognized risk factor for the development of age-related cardiometabolic disease.

Graphical Abstract Highlights d Declining NAD(P)H is associated with oocyte dysfunction during reproductive aging d Oocyte quality and fertility can be restored by NMN treatment in aged mice d Supplementation of embryo media with NMN improves developmental milestones d SIRT2 overexpression mimics benefits of NMN but is unlikely to mediate its effects SUMMARYReproductive aging in female mammals is an irreversible process associated with declining oocyte quality, which is the rate-limiting factor to fertility.Here, we show that this loss of oocyte quality with age accompanies declining levels of the prominent metabolic cofactor nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD + ). Treatment with the NAD + metabolic precursor nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) rejuvenates oocyte quality in aged animals, leading to restoration in fertility, and this can be recapitulated by transgenic overexpression of the NAD + -dependent deacylase SIRT2, though deletion of this enzyme does not impair oocyte quality. These benefits of NMN extend to the developing embryo, where supplementation reverses the adverse effect of maternal age on developmental milestones. These findings suggest that late-life restoration of NAD + levels represents an opportunity to rescue female reproductive function in mammals.

COVID-19 is causing a major once-in-a-century global pandemic. The scientific and clinical community is in a race to define and develop effective preventions and treatments. The major features of disease are described but clinical trials have been hampered by competing interests, small scale, lack of defined patient cohorts and defined readouts. What is needed now is head-to-head comparison of existing drugs, testing of safety including in the background of predisposing chronic diseases, and the development of new and targeted preventions and treatments. This is most efficiently achieved using representative animal models of primary infection including in the background of chronic disease with validation of findings in primary human cells and tissues. We explore and discuss the diverse animal, cell and tissue models that are being used and developed and collectively recapitulate many critical aspects of disease manifestation in humans to develop and test new preventions and treatments.

In invertebrates, reproductive output and lifespan are profoundly impacted by dietary macronutrient balance, with these traits achieving their maxima on different diet compositions, giving the appearance of a resource-based tradeoff between reproduction and longevity. For the first time in a mammal, to our knowledge, we evaluate the effects of dietary protein (P), carbohydrate (C), fat (F), and energy (E) on lifespan and reproductive function in aging male and female mice. We show that, as in invertebrates, the balance of macronutrients has marked and largely opposing effects on reproductive and longevity outcomes. Mice were provided ad libitum access to one of 25 diets differing in P, C, F, and E content, with reproductive outcomes assessed at 15 months. An optimal balance of macronutrients exists for reproductive function, which, for most measures, differs from the diets that optimize lifespan, and this response differs with sex. Maximal longevity was achieved on diets containing a P:C ratio of 1:13 in males and 1:11 for females. Diets that optimized testes mass and epididymal sperm counts (indicators of gamete production) contained a higher P:C ratio (1:1) than those that maximized lifespan. In females, uterine mass (an indicator of estrogenic activity) was also greatest on high P:C diets (1:1) whereas ovarian follicle number was greatest on P:C 3:1 associated with high-F intakes. By contrast, estrous cycling was more likely in mice on lower P:C (1:8), and the number of corpora lutea, indicative of recent ovulations, was greatest on P:C similar to those supporting greatest longevity (1:11).aging | macronutrients | lifespan | reproduction | nutrition N utrition profoundly influences reproduction and lifespan. Traditionally, dietary restriction has been the central focus of most research, with numerous studies showing that caloric restriction can improve age-related health and prolong lifespan across a wide range of taxa ranging from yeasts to humans (1-6). The extension of lifespan under caloric restriction has been explained by resource-mediated tradeoffs between reproduction (age of sexual maturity, number of offspring, and parental investment) and longevity (senescence and lifespan), with these outcomes titrated for maximum overall reproductive success under given levels of resource availability (7,8). However, the view that there is a simple constitutive tradeoff between reproduction and longevity has been challenged by accumulating experimental evidence from invertebrate models, beginning with experiments in Caenorhabditis elegans, demonstrating that lifespan in long-lived mutants was not affected by the ablation of germ cell and somatic gonad precursors, indicating that neither germ cells nor progeny production was directly responsible for increased longevity in the worm (9). Later, it was found that manipulating the insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1) pathway in adult worms can extend lifespan without the loss of fecundity (10). In beetles, the increased risk of death associated with high egg pr...

The liver is positioned at the interface between two routes traversed by pathogens in disseminating infection. Whereas blood-borne pathogens are efficiently cleared in hepatic sinusoids by Kupffer cells (KCs), it is unknown how the liver prevents dissemination of peritoneal pathogens accessing its outer membrane. We report here that the hepatic capsule harbors a contiguous cellular network of liver-resident macrophages phenotypically distinct from KCs. These liver capsular macrophages (LCMs) were replenished in the steady state from blood monocytes, unlike KCs that are embryonically derived and self-renewing. LCM numbers increased after weaning in a microbiota-dependent process. LCMs sensed peritoneal bacteria and promoted neutrophil recruitment to the capsule, and their specific ablation resulted in decreased neutrophil recruitment and increased intrahepatic bacterial burden. Thus, the liver contains two separate and non-overlapping niches occupied by distinct resident macrophage populations mediating immunosurveillance at these two pathogen entry points to the liver.

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Sleep disturbances are common in older people and are associated with their risk of falling. Internet-based surveys may be a useful adjunct method for research in older people.