UPDATE: This story is getting huge! More links below.This is going to appear in The Journal of Biological Chemistry on November 2nd. 2007
Take an average mouse: it can run on a tread mill for 19 minutes straight, gets fat when it over eats and has a biological clock that only allows it to have so many birth cycles. Now take that same mouse, tweak a gene and then boost the levels of an enzyme called PEPCK-C in the mice's skeletal muscles and now you have a super mouse capable of the following:
"... They are metabolically similar to Lance Armstrong biking up the Pyrenees," researcher Richard Hanson, PhD, says in a news release. ..."
"... The genetically engineered mice ran for 32 minutes, while the ordinary mice pooped out at 19 minutes. ..."
"... The genetically engineered mice ate 60% more than the ordinary mice, but they were lean and light, weighing half of what normal mice weigh with 90% less body fat. ..."
"... For instance, mice that were up to 2.5 years old outran mice that were less than half their age, the study shows. ..."
"... In addition, a 30-month-old genetically engineered female mouse had baby mice during the study, well past the typical mouse-bearing ages.
A major unanswered question, Hanson's team notes, is what brain changes accompany the genetically engineered mice's hyped-up activity. ..."
If it only lowered your IQ ten points, would take it?! [Link] [Link] [Link]
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