Table 1.

Summary appraisal of the published life span studies using healthy rodents

106 separate life span studies where compounds were administered to normala rodents (less 20 contradictory melatonin studies)b

6 studies found life span extension and showed food consumption was not responsible by measuring it

Deprenyl administered orally to female hamsters

Deprenyl and Dinh lang root extract administered to mice

Dinitrophenol administered to a short-lived, normal mouse strain

l-dopa administered orally to male mice

Marine collagen peptides extended the mean life span of Sprague–Dawley rats

Reduced advanced glycation end products present in standard rodent diet

6 studies found life span extension and reported no change in weight, with data shown or details given (this list excludes studies which showed no change in food consumption listed above)

Coenzyme Q10 administered orally to male Wistar rats a diet high in polyunsaturated fatty acids

Ginkgo biloba administered orally to F344 rats

Green tea polyphenols administered orally to mice

2-Mercaptoethanol administered orally to mice

PBN administered orally to mice

Piperoxane administered by injection to rats

20 studies report LS extension but potential CR effects cannot be excluded

Body weight and/or food consumption called “unchanged”, but no data given or data given but not analyzed statistically (e.g., it remains unclear whether the data are anecdotal or systematic, when and how many times during the study measurements were taken, the means and standard deviations of the measurements, and what statistical methods were used to analyze the data?)

29 studies report results that are likely due to induced “voluntary” CR

Body weights or food consumption were less than those of controls or neither was reported

36 studies report no effect on life span

3 studies report reduced LS

9 studies would be difficult to repeat or have methodological or reporting confounds that render their data of uncertain significance

Only English language publications were reviewed

^b Normal in this context means the animals had no known genetic defect leading to an artificially decreased life span and were not given a physical or chemical treatment to stress the animals and shorten their life span

^bIf a publication reports the testing of a compound or compounds using more than one group of animals, each test was listed and counted separately. If a compound was tested in more than one publication, these studies are counted separately. If a compound had differential effects on the lifespan of mice of different strains in a single report, these effects were counted under multiple categories.