This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Services Download to citation manager PubMed PubMed Citation

Dietary Protein Restriction Decreases Oxidative Protein Damage, Peroxidizability Index, and Mitochondrial Complex I Content in Rat Liver

¹ Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lleida, Spain.
² Department of Animal Physiology-II, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.

Address correspondence to Reinald Pamplona, MD, PhD, Departament de Ciències Mèdiques Bàsiques, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat de Lleida, c/Montserrat Roig 2, 25008 Lleida, Spain. E-mail: reinald.pamplona{at}cmb.udl.es

Caloric restriction (CR) decreases oxidative damage, which contributes to the slowing of aging rate. It is not known if such decreases are due to calories themselves or specific dietary components. In this work, the ingestion of proteins of Wistar rats was decreased by 40% below that of controls. After 7 weeks, the liver of the protein-restricted (PR) animals showed decreases in oxidative protein damage, degree of membrane unsaturation, and mitochondrial complex I content. The results and previous information suggest that the decrease in the rate of aging induced by PR can be due in part to decreases in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production and DNA and protein oxidative modification, increases in fatty acid components more resistant to oxidative damage, and decreased expression of complex I, analogously to what occurs during CR. Recent studies suggest that those benefits of PR could be caused, in turn, by the lowered methionine intake of that dietary manipulation.