Is it enough to breathe less oxygen to live longer?

We humans have always been looking for an elixir of life, and for methods that allow us to live healthier for longer: past studies have seen that to lengthen the life of the cells in our body, it can be take metmorphinea drug thought that people with diabetes, or mix three different drugs such as rifampicin, rapamycin and allantoin.

Some research had also suggested that breathe less oxygen, keeping its concentration well below the 21 percent typical of the air we breathe at sea level, could lengthen the life of some animals such as fruit flies or worms. Now a study Published on PLOS Biology investigated further the relationship between oxygen and longevity in mammals, carrying out experiments on mice and discovering that, indeed, those less oxygenated they live longer.

I study. Epidemiological observations had already shown that people who live at high altitudes, where the air is thinner and therefore less oxygen is breathed in, tend to live longer and get less sick. “We wanted to test whether, in a controlled environment, oxygen depletion had the same effects on mice,” explains Vamsi Mootha, one of the authors.

The scholars have therefore analyzed a strain of mice that ages prematurely, dying at 3-4 months of age against about two years of normal mice. At four weeks old, the researchers locked the mice in a hypoxic chamber with an oxygen concentration of just 11% — the same one found at around 5,000 meters.

Half life given. These mice live an average of 16 weeks: those that lived in the hypoxic chamber died at an average of 24 weeks, increasing one’s life expectancy by 50%. And the rodents not only lived longer, but also improved their neurological function, as demonstrated by coordination and strength tests.

Why? To understand whether other side factors to the decrease in oxygen came into play, the researchers checked whether the mice ate less food than normal (the low-calorie diets they lengthen life in many animals), but rather the opposite.

By analyzing DNA damage, gene activity and changes in cell signaling pathways, the authors were able to formulate some hypotheses, but could not get any definitive answers.

AND NOW? The next step is to investigate whether breathing less oxygen also extends the life of wild mice, as well as to better define which mechanisms are responsible for this effect-longevity and establish whether they affect all organs.