Aging? Who Me?

In his ongoing attempt to get me to: a) take my vitamins, and b) give up my Diet Coke addiction, the Chairman has sent me an article on aging (aarrrgggh) from Scientific American.

Apparently, he thinks my brain is functional here at the end of the week. Because the article includes words like “catalase” (very important) “hydrogen peroxide,” (bad, very bad) “free radicals” (even worse) “mitochondria” (I’m thinking, I’m thinking) “organelles” (connected to the mitochondria?). Insert random verbs. Your choice.

Dorian Gray: For Perpetual Youth,

What Would You Do?

But hey, I’m on the job, to figure out what all this means! So, I dug out the original article, “Extension of Murine Lifespan by Overexpression of Catalase Targeted to Mitochondria”:

To determine the role of reactive oxygen species in mammalian longevity, we generated transgenic mice that overexpress human catalase localized to the peroxisome (PCAT), nucleus (NCAT), or mitochondrion (MCAT). . . Cardiac pathology and cataract development were delayed, oxidative damage was reduced, H2O2 production and H2O2-induced aconitase inactivation were attenuated, and the development of mitochondrial deletions was reduced. . .

Okay, okay. Basically, it says: take your vitamins. (Better approach than Dorian Gray. . .)

But I’m not giving up my Diet Coke.