Effects of aging and diet on the accumulation of dolichol in rat tissues

Accumulation of Dolichol in Older Tissues Satisfies the Proposed Criteria To Be Qualified a Biomarker of Aging

Criteria for defining biomarkers have been suggested. Accumulation of dolichol in tissues of older animals meets the following criteria: (a) levels of dolichol exhibit a quantitative correlation with age in all tissues and are not altered by several age-dependent diseases in the same direction as that of aging; (b) accumulation is not secondary to metabolic changes of aging and is altered appropriately by factors that modulate the aging rate like caloric restriction and physical exercise; (c) biomarker is applicable to different tissues across mammalian species, including humans, and to trisomy 21 and its hypothalamic digoxin-mediated model. Reliable changes in tissue dolichol levels are seen in relatively short intervals of time compared to over a life span, and levels can be tested on a small amount of tissue without causing death of the animal. In this article, we show applications to the study of host-graft interaction and detection of gender-related differences in biological age, and we discuss mechanism(s) of accumulation.

Novel dolichyl derivatives in rat spleen

Novel dolichyl derivatives were found in rat spleen. The compounds were eluted from reverse phase HPLC after eluting dolichyl fatty acid ester. The elution profiles of the unsaponified forms of the unknown compounds were coincident with that of dolichol from spleen on reverse phase HPLC. The compounds were not dolichyl dolichoate, which are present in bovine thyroid. The compounds were not found in young rats (4 months of age) but were found in old rats (above 12 months of age), and they were not detected in other tissues under our conditions.