Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, Vol 52, Issue 1 B26-B38, Copyright © 1997 by The Gerontological Society of America
Circulating antioxidants as determinants of the rate of biological aging in pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina)
R Short, DD Williams and DM Bowden
Regional Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
The effect of antioxidant activity on the rate of biological aging was
studied in 39 pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) 7-30 years of age.
Scores of seven antioxidant compounds (vitamins C and E, carotenoids,
urate, bilirubin, ceruloplasmin, and albumin) were combined to produce an
antioxidant variable (AOx) that was tested for correlation with a second
composite variable, rate of biological aging (RBA). RBA was formed from
seven physiological variables that met a stringent set of criteria as
biomarkers of aging. Potential effects of disease on RBA and AOx were
excluded by experimental design and by statistical control using a
composite index of disease (Dis) that was based on four measures of
clinical history and pathology. The study produced three salient findings:
(1) there was a significant inverse relation between AOx and RBA (i.e.,
animals that had high AOx scores had low RBA scores and vice versa); (2)
the relation was independent of Dis effects, and (3) there was no
significant relation between AOx and Dis independent of RBA (i.e., the
correlation between AOx and Dis was dependent on the correlation of AOx
with RBA). These results further validated the RBA variable as a measure of
the rate of biological aging and supported the concept that antioxidant
activity influences both the rate of biological aging and vulnerability to
disease.
