Speaker: Andrzej Bartke, professor and director of geriatrics research, internal medicine, at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield

Topic: "The Ames dwarf mouse; growth hormone and aging"

Abstract: The remarkably long lives of diminutive Ames dwarf mice provided evidence that pituitary growth hormone (GH) is importantly involved in the control of mammalian aging.  It is now well established that in laboratory mice, GH deficiency and GH resistance is associated with extension of both healthspan and lifespan and that GH actions can affect aging by multiple mechanisms.  Because GH is a key regulator of biosynthesis of insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF1), these findings add to the evidence that the insulin/IGF signaling  (IIS) influences aging in organisms ranging from yeast and worms to insects and vertebrates. The impact of GH on human aging is less well understood and surprisingly controversial.  We suspect that differences between the impact of GH on aging in mice and in people is related to differences in the “pace-of-life” and in the resulting trade-offs between reproduction and longevity.

Host: Hua Bai, GDCB assistant professor

Please join us for refreshments before the seminar outside Room 1414 of the Molecular Biology Building.