Table 1. Effects of DR on lifespan in rats and mice (1934 – present; excluding ILSXISS strains).

A literature review identified 53 and 72 laboratory experiments that evaluated the effects of DR-type diets on survival in rats and mice, respectively (Supplemental Tables 1 and 2). Each experiment included one experimental treatment in which rodents were provided a low-calorie diet (e.g., 40% DR) paired with a reference group in which rodents were provided a control diet (e.g., ad lib feeding). For each experiment, the percent change in median and/or maximum lifespan with DR was estimated, based upon the ratio of lifespan estimates from the DR and control treatments (DR / control). In some cases, data provided in published reports did not permit a precise estimate of the DR-induced change in median and/or maximum lifespan. Such experiments were excluded from consideration, which yielded 52 and 68 DR effect estimates for median lifespan in rats and mice, respectively, along with 49 and 60 DR effect estimates for maximum lifespan in rats and mice, respectively. Given all estimates available, the table lists the average % change in median or maximum lifespan among DR-fed rats or mice (calculated with greater weight assigned to studies with larger sample sizes). Additionally, the table lists the middle 50% of estimated DR effects among the n experiments included in each analysis. All ILSXISS recombinant inbred strains were excluded from this analysis (Liao et al., 2010a; Rikke et al., 2010).

		Median Lifespan		Maximum Lifespan
		n	% Change DR (middle 50%)	n	% Change DR (middle 50%)
Rats	Pooled	52	30.2% (13.8 – 45.4%)	49	31.6% (17.8 – 35.7%)
	Males	41	31.3% (14.2 – 44.9%)	39	32.6% (18.2 – 39.1%)
	Females	9	25.8% (14.6 – 29.2%)	8	20.4% (7.7 – 28.2%)
Mice	Pooled	68	14.6% (4.1 – 27.0%)	60	17.8% (0.7 – 24.5%)
	Males	34	12.3% (4.1 – 22.8%)	34	14.0% (6.8 – 23.1%)
	Females	32	15.5% (0.7 – 34.9%)	32	20.0% (10.1 – 31.3%)