Research Paper Volume 9, Issue 2 pp 315—339

Improved health-span and lifespan in mtDNA mutator mice treated with the mitochondrially targeted antioxidant SkQ1

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Figure 2. Effects of SkQ1 treatment on body energy stores and intake in mtDNA mutator mice. (A) Body weight, (B) body fat content and (C) lean body mass as a function of age (± 7 days). The points are means ± S.E. In these “paired death” experiments, 8 female mice were in each group until age 238 days; after this, the number of mice decreased with time, depending on survival, with 4 mice in each group at the final point. (D) Scoring of acute body weight decrease in mtDNA mutator mice. The mice are the same as in Fig. 1B. (E) Skin morphology. The skin samples were from the back region of non-treated and SkQ1-treated littermate female mice of the same age (290 ± 4 days). Bar is 100 µm. The subdermal fat region is indicated by arrow. (F) Food intake. The mice are the same as in Fig. 2A. (G) Dietary, fecal and metabolic energy in mtDNA mutator at age 250 ± 7 days. Metabolic energy values were obtained by subtraction of fecal energy from dietary energy consumed. * in A-D and F indicates a statistically significant difference between non-treated and SkQ-treated mtDNA mutator mice (p < 0.05, n = 8 mice in each group). (H) Water intake in mtDNA mutator mice treated or not with SkQ1. The points were obtained by combining remaining water from all mice in each group (8 female mtDNA mutator mice) and subtracting this from the total amount of water supplied (values per mouse).