FREE-RADICAL THEORY OF AGING - BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF ADDING ANTIOXIDANTS TO THE MATERNAL MOUSE DIET ON LIFE-SPAN OF OFFSPRING - POSSIBLE EXPLANATION OF THE SEX DIFFERENCE IN LONGEVITY

Endogenous free radical reactions may have an adverse effect on the life span. Based on this possibility a number of free radical reaction inhibitors have been shown to increase the average life span of mice when added to the diet throughout life starting shortly after weaning. The purpose of this study was to determine if exposure to free radical reaction inhibitors, by including them in the maternal diet during the period of about 40 days of high mitotic and metabolic activity between conception and weaning, would also increase the life span. This was found to be the case. The largest increase in average life span was obtained by adding 0.5 percent by weight of the water soluble compound, 2-mercaptoethylamine, to the maternal diet; the increase was 14.7 percent for male offspring and 8.6 percent for females. Consideration of the data of this study in the light of early events in embryogenesis, led to the suggestion that the greater longevity of females is due, at least in part, to greater protection of female embryos from free radical reaction damage during the period before random inactivation of one of their two X-chromosomes. © 1979 American Aging Association, Inc.