Mitochondria hyperfusion and elevated autophagic activity are key mechanisms for cellular bioenergetic preservation in centenarians
http://www.impactaging.com/papers/v6/n4 ... 00654.html
…with final Discussion pgph…
Note 'DF' = Dermal Fibroblasts - the cells studied, and LLI = Long Lived Individuals (centenarians).Finally, it is to note that DFs from LLI are able to respond to metabolic impairment due to starvation much better than those from Young and, mainly, Old subjects. This is in line with the hypothesis that cells derived from centenarians could be endowed with an exceptional capacity to engulf and digest in huge vacuoles their siblings, likely a strategy of food supply [52]. It has also been suggested that cells from LLI could be characterized, at least to some extent, by a phenotype similar to that induced by the so called caloric restriction, a sort of mild starvation, which is the most efficient method to extend life span in animal models and humans [53,54]. In agreement with this view, we observed that mitochondria of LLI maintain their energetic capacity by increasing their mass and forming large networks, as it occurs under starvation conditions in cells from young subjects, suggesting that also from a bioenergetic point of view cells from LLI behave as if they were naturally calorie restricted. This hypothesis needs further investigations to be validated.
In short they looked at the mitochondria form in young old and LLI's and found that the LLI's had noticeably aggregated (hyperprofused) mitochondria and propose that this is an energy efficiency thing naturally occurring in some LLI old people but phenomenologically similar to conditions observed in calorie restricted people.
Now it would be interesting to know if similar can be induced by periodic/episodic variability?
