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Regulation of C.elegans Life Span by Insulin-Like Signaling

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Endocrine Aspects of Successful Aging: Genes, Hormones and Lifestyles

Part of the book series: Research and Perspectives in Endocrine Interactions ((RPEI))

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Abstract

An insulin signaling pathway couples feeding and nutritional status in mammals to the tempo and mode of metabolism in most tissues of the animal (Kahn 1994; Kahn and Weir 1994). Insulin secretion by the pancreas is regulated by nutritional and autonomic neural inputs, and this endocrine signal of metabolic status is detected by target tissues to regulate the activities of metabolic enzymes that synthesize or break down glucose, amino acids, fat, etc. We have shown that an insulin-like signaling pathway regulates longevity and metabolism in C. elegans (Kimura et al. 1997). This regulation may be mechanistically related to the longevity increase caused by caloric restriction in mammals. Our genetic analysis has also revealed outputs of C. elegans insulin -like signaling. We identified human homologs of many of these components in genome databases; many of these homologs have now been shown to transduce insulin and insulin-like signaling in humans.

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Authors
  1. Gary Ruvkun
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Service d’Endocrinologie, Hôpital Bicêtre, 78, avenue de Géneral Leclerc, 94275, Kremlin-Bicêtre, France

    Philippe Chanson

  2. Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U549, IFR Broca-Sainte Anne, 2ter rue d’Alésia, 75014, Paris, France

    Jacques Epelbaum

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, Dr Molewaterplein 40, 3015 GD, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Steven Lamberts

  4. Pour la Recherche Thérapeutique, Fondation IPSEN, 24, rue Erlanger, 75781, Paris Cedex 16, France

    Yves Christen

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ruvkun, G. (2004). Regulation of C.elegans Life Span by Insulin-Like Signaling. In: Chanson, P., Epelbaum, J., Lamberts, S., Christen, Y. (eds) Endocrine Aspects of Successful Aging: Genes, Hormones and Lifestyles. Research and Perspectives in Endocrine Interactions. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-07019-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-07019-2_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-07359-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-07019-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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