Protein that boosts longevity may protect against diabetes
Leonard Guarente, the Novartis Professor of Biology at MITPhoto: M. Scott Brauer A protein that slows aging in mice and other animals also protects against the ravages of a high-fat diet, including diabetes, according to a new MIT study.MIT biology professor Leonard Guarente ’74 discovered SIRT1’s longevity-boosting properties more than a decade ago and has since explored its role in many different body tissues. In his latest study, appearing in the Aug. 8 print edition of the journal Cell Metabolism, he looked at what happens when the SIRT1 protein is missing from adipose cells, which make up body fat.When put on a high-fat diet, mice lacking the protein started to develop metabolic disorders, such as diabetes, much sooner than normal mice given a high-fat diet.“We see them as being poised for metabolic dysfunction,” says Guarente, the Novartis Professor of Biology at MIT. “You’ve removed one of the safeguards against metabolic decline,...