Proteomic analysis of dietary restriction in yeast reveals a role for Hsp26 in replicative lifespan extension.

Dietary restriction (DR) has been shown to increase lifespan in organisms ranging from yeast to mammals. This suggests that the underlying mechanisms may be evolutionarily conserved. Indeed, upstream signalling pathways, such as TOR, are strongly linked to DR-induced longevity in various organisms. However, the downstream effector proteins that ultimately mediate lifespan extension are less clear. To shed light on this, we used a proteomic approach on budding yeast. Our reasoning was that analysis of proteome-wide changes in response to DR might enable the identification of proteins that mediate its physiological effects, including replicative lifespan extension. Of over 2500 proteins we identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, 183 were significantly altered in expression by at least 3-fold in response to DR. Most of these proteins were mitochondrial and/or had clear links to respiration and metabolism. Indeed, direct analysis of oxygen consumption confirmed that mitochondrial respiration was increased several-fold in response to DR. In addition, several key proteins involved in mating, including Ste2 and Ste6, were down-regulated by DR. Consistent with this, shmoo formation in response to α-factor pheromone was reduced by DR, thus confirming the inhibitory effect of DR on yeast mating. Finally, we found that Hsp26, a member of the conserved small heat shock protein (sHSP) family, was up-regulated by DR and that overexpression of Hsp26 extended yeast replicative lifespan. As overexpression of sHSPs in Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila has previously been shown to extend lifespan, our data on yeast Hsp26 suggest that sHSPs may be universally conserved effectors of longevity.

Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Exhibit Enhanced Proliferative Capacity and Retain Multipotency Longer than Donor-Matched Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells during Expansion In Vitro.

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and adipose-derived multipotent/mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) have been proposed as the ideal cell types for a range of musculoskeletal tissue engineering and regenerative medicine therapies. However, extensive in vitro expansion is required to generate sufficient cells for clinical application and previous studies have demonstrated differences in the proliferative capacity and the impact of expansion on differentiation capacity of both MSCs and ASCs. Significantly, these studies routinely use cells from different donors, making direct comparisons difficult. Importantly, this study directly compared the proliferative capacity and multipotency of human MSCs and ASCs from the same donors to determine how each cell type was affected by in vitro expansion. The study identified that ASCs were able to proliferate faster and undergo greater population doublings than donor-matched MSCs and that senescence was primarily driven via telomere shortening and upregulation of p16ink4a. Both donor-matched MSCs and ASCs were capable of trilineage differentiation early in cultures; however, while differentiation capacity diminished with time in culture, ASCs retained enhanced capacity compared to MSCs. These findings suggest that ASCs may be the most appropriate cell type for musculoskeletal tissue engineering and regenerative medicine therapies due to their enhanced in vitro expansion capacity and limited loss of differentiation potential.