Rapamycin rejuvenates oral health in aging mice
- University of Washington, United States
- The Jackson Laboratory, United States
- University of Missouri-Kansas City, United States
Abstract
Periodontal disease is an age-associated disorder clinically defined by periodontal bone loss, inflammation of the specialized tissues that surround and support the tooth, and microbiome dysbiosis. Currently, there is no therapy for reversing periodontal disease, and treatment is generally restricted to preventive measures or tooth extraction. The FDA-approved drug rapamycin slows aging and extends lifespan in multiple organisms, including mice. Here we demonstrate that short-term treatment with rapamycin rejuvenates the aged oral cavity of elderly mice, including regeneration of periodontal bone, attenuation of gingival and periodontal bone inflammation, and revertive shift of the oral microbiome toward a more youthful composition. This provides a geroscience strategy to potentially rejuvenate oral health and reverse periodontal disease in the elderly.
Data availability
The V4-16S rDNA sequences in raw format, prior to post-processing and data analysis, have been deposited at the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) under study accession no. PRJEB35672.Dryad Data link: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f4qrfj6sn
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Rapamycin rejuvenates oral health in aging miceDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.f4qrfj6sn.
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Rapamycin rejuvenates oral health in aging miceEuropean Nucleotide Archive (ENA), PRJEB35672.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (DE027254,DE023810,DE020102)
- Jonathan Y An
- Jeffrey S McLean
National Institute on Aging (AG054180,AG038070,AG038070)
- Catherine Kaczorowski
National Institutes of Health (TR002318)
- Kristopher A Kerns
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocols of the University of Washington (#4359-01) and of the Jackson Laboratory (#06005-A24) .
Copyright
© 2020, An et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Rapamycin rejuvenates oral health in aging mice
eLife 9:e54318.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54318
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