Vitamin C Reverses Abnormalities Caused by Disease of Accelerated Aging

People with Werner’s syndrome begin to show signs of accelerated aging in their 20s and develop age-related diseases and generally die before the age of 50. Laurent Massip, from the Hopital Hotel-Dieu de Quebec (Canada), and colleagues studied this disorder of premature aging in a mouse model in which the liver dysfunction, inflammation, and metabolic dysregulation characteristic of Werner’s syndrome were replicated.  Scientists treated both normal mice and Werner’s syndrome-like mice with vitamin C in drinking water. Before treatment, the Werner’s syndrome-like were fat, diabetic, and developing heart disease and cancer. After treatment, the mutant mice were as healthy as the normal mice and lived a normal lifespan. Vitamin C also improved how the mice stored and burned fat, decreased tissue inflammation and decreased oxidative stress in the WRN mice. Observing that Vitamin C supplementation “rescued the shorter mean life span of [Werner’s syndrome] mice and reversed several age-related abnormalities in adipose tissues and liver endothelial defenestration, genomic integrity, and inflammatory status,”  the researchers suggest that: “These results indicate that vitamin C supplementation could be beneficial for patients with [Werner’s syndrome].”