Researchers discover that growing up too fast may mean dying young in ...(prediction that such markers are prevale...)

The study was conducted by Stephen P. Roberts, Michelle M. Elekonich and Jason B. Williams, all of the School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas. Their study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is entitled Oxidative stress and antioxidant mechanisms at the transition to an aerobically intensive lifestyle in honey bees. Dr. Roberts is presenting the team's preliminary findings at the 2008 American Physiological Society Intersociety Meeting The Integrative Biology of Exercise V (APS; www.the-APS.org/press).

Study Summary

oney bees were reared in single-cohort colonies to enable sampling and comparisons of (a) same-aged bees performing different behaviors and (b) different-aged bees performing the same behaviors. Comparison groups were 8-10 day-old (precocious) foragers, 8-10 day-old (typical) hive bees, 30-32 day-old (typical) foragers and 30-32 day-old (over-aged) hive bees. Antioxidant proteins Hsp70 and catalase were measured in head and thorax tissues using western blot. Total antioxidant capacity of the tissues was measured as the ability of homogenate to inhibit the oxidation of ABTS (2,20-azino-di-[3-ethylbenzthiazolinesulphonate]) to ABTS+ relative to trolox standards. Protein carbonylation, aconitase Vmax inhibition and mitochondrial H2O2 production were measured as markers of oxidative damage.

The Preliminary Study Results

The research team found that:

• Foragers upregulate Hsp70, catalase and total antioxidant capacity in their flight muscles over the course of a day. However, these changes did not occur or were muted in forager head tissues and hive bee flight muscles and head tissues.

• The diurnal upregulation of antioxidants and antio
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