Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, Vol 51, Issue 6 B448-B453, Copyright © 1996 by The Gerontological Society of America

JOURNAL ARTICLE

L-deprenyl treatment in aged mice slightly increases life spans, and greatly reduces fecundity by aged males

JR Archer and DE Harrison
Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA.

Male and female B6D2F1 (C57BL/6J x DBA/2J)F1 and B6CBAF1 (C57BL/6J x CBA/CaHT6J)F1 mice were injected subcutaneously 3 times a week with L- deprenyl (0.25 mg/kg) starting at mean ages of 26 months and 18.5 months, respectively. Life spans of aging mice were increased 6-9% by the drug. While none of the life span effects were significant for a single genotype and gender, life spans were significantly longer in L- deprenyl-treated animals (p = .011) when all data were combined. L- deprenyl-injected mice consumed about the same amounts of food as controls: L-deprenyl 3.1 g/day, control 3.3 g/day, after 7 months of treatment. There were no significant effects of L-deprenyl on measures of changes with age in the following biological systems: activity, excitement, red blood cell mass, collagen denaturation rate, and wound healing rate. L-deprenyl-treated B6CBAF1 males and females were significantly heavier than controls after 4-6 months of treatment. To measure fecundity, B6CBAF1 males at an average age of 750 days were each caged with two young B6 females; 10 of 17 L-deprenyl-injected males sired an average of 31.3 pups per male, while 14 of 24 controls sired 82.1 pups per male.