In brief
Female mice were injected subcutaneously on five consecutive days each month, from three months old until they died, with either saline or Epitalon at roughly 30 to 40 micrograms per kilogram. Treatment did not change food intake, body weight or mean lifespan. It did slow the age-related loss of oestrous cycling, reduced chromosome aberrations in bone-marrow cells by 17 percent, and increased the lifespan of the last 10 percent of survivors by 13 percent and the maximum lifespan by 12 percent. Total spontaneous tumour incidence was unchanged, but leukaemia developed six times less often than in controls. The authors conclude the peptide has geroprotective activity and was safe over long-term administration in mice.
Study design
Lifelong study in 108 female outbred SHR mice, 54 per group, monthly five-day courses of Epitalon or saline from three months of age until natural death.
What it does not show
Mean lifespan did not change; the lifespan effect is confined to the longest-lived tenth. One strain, one sex, one laboratory, and a mouse result that has not been shown in people.
Results in rodents or other animals often do not reproduce in people. Species, route, dose and the injury or disease model all shape the outcome, and an effect in a rat is a reason for further study, not a conclusion.
Where this paper is cited
- Epithalon — Female SHR mice: slowed several biomarkers of ageing and reduced spontaneous tumour incidence over the lifespan study.
Other papers cited for Epithalon
- Cell-culture study Epithalon peptide induces telomerase activity and telomere elongation in human somatic cells Khavinson VKh et al. (2003), Bull Exp Biol Med
Further reading
- Research library: every paper cited on this site, by compound and by study type.
- Cognitive and longevity peptide comparison
- How to read a certificate of analysis
- Lyophilised peptide storage and stability
How this page was made: the citation was retrieved from PubMed by PMID and checked against the title on the product page; the summary was written from the paper's abstract and reports only what the abstract reports. Read the paper itself before relying on any figure here.