A toolbox for the longitudinal assessment of healthspan in aging mice

• Published in: Nature protocols Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 540 - 574
• Main Authors: Bellantuono, I., de Cabo, R., Ehninger, D., Di Germanio, C., Lawrie, A., Miller, J., Mitchell, S. J., Navas-Enamorado, I., Potter, P. K., Tchkonia, T., Trejo, J. L., Lamming, D. W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.02.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/1647/334/1874/345; 631/1647/767; 692/700/1518; Age related diseases; Aging; Aging - metabolism; Aging - physiology; Alzheimer's disease; Analytical Chemistry; Animal models in research; Animals; Biological Techniques; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Body Composition; Cardiovascular diseases; Cognitive ability; Computational Biology/Bioinformatics; Diabetes mellitus; Echocardiography; Electrocardiography; Energy expenditure; Energy Metabolism; Evaluation; Glucose; Glucose tolerance; Glucose Tolerance Test; Grip strength; Hand Strength; Health; Health aspects; Insulin; Insulin Resistance; Life Sciences; Longitudinal Studies; Medical protocols; Medical screening; Methods; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Microarrays; Neurodegenerative diseases; Object recognition; Organic Chemistry; Pattern recognition; Physiological aspects; Protocol; Recognition, Psychology; United States; Europe
• ISSN: 1754-2189; 1750-2799
• DOI: 10.1038/s41596-019-0256-1

The number of people aged over 65 is expected to double in the next 30 years. For many, living longer will mean spending more years with the burdens of chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Although researchers have made rapid progress in developing geroprotective interventions that target mechanisms of aging and delay or prevent the onset of multiple concurrent age-related diseases, a lack of standardized techniques to assess healthspan in preclinical murine studies has resulted in reduced reproducibility and slow progress. To overcome this, major centers in Europe and the United States skilled in healthspan analysis came together to agree on a toolbox of techniques that can be used to consistently assess the healthspan of mice. Here, we describe the agreed toolbox, which contains protocols for echocardiography, novel object recognition, grip strength, rotarod, glucose tolerance test (GTT) and insulin tolerance test (ITT), body composition, and energy expenditure. The protocols can be performed longitudinally in the same mouse over a period of 4–6 weeks to test how candidate geroprotectors affect cardiac, cognitive, neuromuscular, and metabolic health. A series of techniques (echocardiography, novel object recognition, grip strength, rotarod, glucose and insulin tolerance tests, body composition, and energy expenditure) are used to assess the health of mice.