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Smurf-y Old Age
Flies turning blue help researchers link the deterioration of the intestinal
barrier to age-related death.
By Beth Marie Mole | April 1, 2013

A DEATHLY HUE: Flies given meals tinted with blue dye turn that color about
a week before death.COURTESY OF MICHAEL RERA
The paper
M. Rera et al., "Intestinal barrier dysfunction links metabolic and
inflammatory markers of aging to death in Drosophila," PNAS
<http://www.pnas.org/content/109/52/21528.long> , 109:21528-33, 2012.

The question
Aging is marked by the accumulation of wear and tear on the body's organs
and tissues, but the specific kinds of damage that usher in death are still
unknown. David Walker and his colleagues at the University of California,
Los Angeles, suspected that the intestines may play a key role. In previous
studies, when energy metabolism in the intestines was boosted, the flies'
lifespan increased.

The finding
Walker and his colleagues tested intestinal integrity by feeding the flies
food tinted with blue dye. Although they saw no effect of the dye on food
intake, they did notice that older flies turned blue about a week before
death. Researchers discovered that the "Smurf" phenotype, as they called it,
resulted from the breakdown of the intestinal barrier and the leakage of the
blue dye into the hemolymph-the fly equivalent of blood-during digestion.

The connections
After confirming that intestinal barrier defects could be detected with
additional dyes, the researchers found that the Smurf phenotype was an even
better predictor of impending death than the flies' actual age. Moreover,
the researchers found that the phenotype was correlated with other
aging-related markers, such as increased inflammation and insulin
resistance.

The significance
Though Walker is quick to point out that their study doesn't explain whether
intestinal barrier breakdown is the cause or effect of inflammation or
insulin resistance, the data suggest that the intestinal barrier is indeed
important in aging. "It's a nice demonstration that the gut is a critical
tissue for longevity," says Heinrich Jasper of the Buck Institute for
Research on Aging, who was not involved in the study.


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