Strict Diet Stops Development and Prolongs Life of Worms

Want to live longer? Then stick to a strict diet. Scientists have found that when the tiny, nematode worm, C. elegans, stuck to an extreme, emaciating diet, it actually triggered arrested development and caused the worm to essentially stop aging.

"It is possible that low-nutrient diets set off the same pathways in us to put our cells in a quiescent state," said David Sherwood, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The trick is to find a way to pharmacologically manipulate this process so that we can get the anti-aging benefits without the pain of diet restriction."

Researchers have long known that nutrient deprivation can extent the lifespan of animals. In fact, numerous studies revealed that rats, mice, yeast, flies, spiders, fish, monkeys and worms all display this phenomenon. That's why scientists decided to take a closer look, with the help of C. elegans.

The researchers decided to focus on the last two stages of C. elegans larval development, known as L3 and L4. During these stages of development, the worm's critical tissues and organs are still developing, like the vulva. More specifically, the worm vulva develops from a speck of three cells to a slightly larger ball of 22 cells. What was interesting was that when the scientists took away food at various times throughout the L3 and L4 stages, development paused when the vulva was either at the three-cell stage or the 22-cell stage, but no in between. Not only that, but all tissues and cells in the organism became "stuck" at two major checkpoints when deprived of nutrition.

"Development isn't a continuous, nonstop process," said Adam Schindler, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Organisms have to monitor their environment and decide whether or not it is amenable to their development. If it isn't, they stop, if it is, they go. Those checkpoints seem to exist to allow the animal to make that decision. And that decision has implications, because the resources either go to development or to survival."

The findings have implications for aging and cancer. By learning how to halt cell progression, scientists could potentially utilize this finding in many medical applications.

The findings are published in the journal PLOS Genetics.