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. 2018 Aug 20;65(3):37-43.
doi: 10.5458/jag.jag.JAG-2018_002. eCollection 2018.

Glucosamine Extends the Lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans via Autophagy Induction

Tomoya Shintani  1   2 , Yuhei Kosuge  1 , Hisashi Ashida  3
Affiliations

Glucosamine Extends the Lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans via Autophagy Induction

Tomoya Shintani et al. J Appl Glycosci (1999). .

Abstract

Glucosamine (GlcN) is commonly used as a dietary supplement to promote cartilage health in humans. We previously reported that GlcN could induce autophagy in cultured mammalian cells. Autophagy is known to be involved in the prevention of various diseases and aging. Here, we showed that GlcN extended the lifespan of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans by inducing autophagy. Autophagy induction by GlcN was demonstrated by western blotting for LGG-1 (an ortholog of mammalian LC3) and by detecting autophagosomal dots in seam cells by fluorescence microscopy. Lifespan assays revealed that GlcN-induced lifespan extension was achieved with at least 5 mM GlcN. A maximum lifespan extension of approximately 30 % was achieved with 20 mM GlcN (p<0.0001). GlcN-induced lifespan extension was not dependent on the longevity genes daf-16 and sir-2.1 but dependent on the autophagy-essential gene atg-18. Therefore, we suggest that oral administration of GlcN could help delay the aging process via autophagy induction.

Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; anti-aging; atg-18; autophagy; glucosamine; lifespan.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Autophagy induction by GlcN in C. elegans.
(A) Transgenic worms expressing GFP::LGG-1 were grown with 0–80 mM GlcN for 96 h and harvested. GFP::LGG-1 and free GFP were detected by western blotting using anti-GFP antibody. (B) Autophagosome formation was analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. Left column, control; right column, worms grown in medium containing 40 mM GlcN. Upper row, Nomarski images of eggs/embryos; middle row, fluorescent images of eggs/embryos; bottom row, fluorescent images of adults. (C) The number of GFP-positive dots in the cytosol of seam cells was determined. Approximately 100 seam cells were analyzed. Data represent the mean ± standard deviation. Asterisks indicate significant differences compared with the control (p<0.05) by Student's t-test.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Survival curves of C. elegans grown with GlcN.
(A) Young adults of the wild-type strain (N2) were grown with GlcN (0–30 mM). (B) Larvae of the wild-type strain (N2) were grown with GlcN (0–30 mM). (C) The daf-16 mutant worms were grown with or without 10 mM GlcN. (D) The sir-2.1 mutant worms were grown with or without 10 mM GlcN. (E) The atg-18 mutant worms were grown with or without 10–20 mM GlcN.
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