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Astragalus membranaceus Increases Leukocyte Telomere Length, but Does Not Suppress Development of Accelerated Senescence Signs in OXYS Rats

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Abstract

Astragalus membranaceus (AM) was used for millennia by traditional Chinese medicine to slow down aging and extend lifespan. It has been shown that AM can affect all key hallmarks of aging including compensating telomere shortening which is recognized as one of the most reliable biomarkers of aging. The telomere shortening in peripheral blood leukocytes is viewed as a promising biomarker in predicting the risk of age-related diseases as well as a biomarker of the effectiveness of treatment. However, findings from epidemiological studies on the links between leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and age-related diseases are rather contradictory. The present study is aimed to investigate the effect of AM on the LTL and the AM influence on the manifestation and development of the sings of accelerated senescence in OXYS rats. Animals were given AM root powder (100 mg/kg) from 3 to 6 months of age. Our study confirmed the ability of AM to activate telomerase, as evidenced by an increase in LTL in OXYS rats. However, LTL lengthening was not accompanied by a delay of the accelerated senescence of OXYS rats, manifested as the early development of cataract, retinopathy similar to age-related macular degeneration and accelerated brain aging. Thus, we have demonstrated a limitation of using LTL as indicator for assessing the effectiveness of anti-aging therapy.

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Funding

The work was supported by State Budget Project FWNR-2022-0016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cytology and Genetics Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia

    O. S. Kozhevnikova, V. A. Devyatkin, M. A. Tyumentsev, E. A. Rudnitskaya, A. Zh. Fursova & N. G. Kolosova

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  1. O. S. Kozhevnikova
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  2. V. A. Devyatkin
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  3. M. A. Tyumentsev
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  4. E. A. Rudnitskaya
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  5. A. Zh. Fursova
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  6. N. G. Kolosova
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Correspondence to N. G. Kolosova.

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Conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Statement on the welfare of animals. Ethical approval no. 34 from June 15, 2016 was received from the Ethics Committee on Animal Experiments at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics (Novosibirsk, Russia).

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Kozhevnikova, O.S., Devyatkin, V.A., Tyumentsev, M.A. et al. Astragalus membranaceus Increases Leukocyte Telomere Length, but Does Not Suppress Development of Accelerated Senescence Signs in OXYS Rats. Adv Gerontol 12, 128–134 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079057022020114

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