Hippocampal gene network analysis suggests that coral calcium hydride may reduce accelerated senescence in mice

Recent studies strongly support the hypothesis that an antioxidant diet inhibits the pathologic aging process as shown in senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 (SAM/P-8). In our previous study in coral calcium hydride (CCH), we reported that a diet rich in antioxidants inhibited the pathologic aging process, increased the endogenous antioxidant ability, and contributed to prolonging the lifespan of SAM/P-8. To test the hypothesis that antioxidant CCH supplementation to SAM/P-8 mice would change the gene expression and to understand how CCH reverses the acceleration of aging in SAM/P-8 mice, we used a DNA array to compare the expression levels in the hippocampus of the brains from 16-week-old SAM/P-8 mice that were either treated or not treated with CCH. The most significant up-regulated changes in the gene network of SAM/P-8 mice were free radical scavenging and molecular transport, whereas genes associated with cell death, cancer, and cell cycle were down-regulated. Our findings regarding the changes in these messenger RNA might be associated with the inhibition of the acceleration of aging, as observed in SAM/P-8 mice fed a CCH diet.