Frailty threatens older individuals because it increases their vulnerability to detrimental health outcomes, such as falling, longer hospitalization, or even shortened life expectancy. New research exploring the linkage between frailty and mortality risk points to retaining gonad function as a potent strategy to fight late-life frailty.
The study conducted by scientists at the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation’s Center for Exceptional Longevity Studies was published last week in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Scientific Reports.
To date, research on physical frailty has focused mainly on understanding factors that lead to frailty development to discover strategies that might prevent or postpone frailty. In contrast, relatively little attention has focused on factors that might influence frailty resilience, so that fewer adverse health consequences take place once frailty occurs. The results of the new study suggest that the HPG axis — the body’s system of regulating production of the hormone testosterone — can significantly impact the lethality of late-life frailty.
“Our work provides the first description of the relationship between HPG axis integrity and the mortality risk associated with late-life frailty,” said David J. Waters, DVM, PhD, Director of the Murphy Foundation’s Center for Exceptional Longevity Studies. “Male dogs with the shortest duration of testis exposure had a very high mortality risk associated with late-life frailty, whereas the mortality consequence of increasing frailty was erased in males with the longest gonad exposure.”
Chronic administration of rapamycin is definitely harmful to the hpg axis, intermittent, not so much.
The study mentioned a working hpg axis to ward off frailty, but we know in humans, supplementing with testosterone will increase lean mass in hypogonadal men. We also know that supplementing testosterone shuts down the hpg axis. Hence, I suspect that giving those dogs testosterone could also reduce their frailty risk.
Hmmmm… gonad/nut sac shrinage… never been an issue… the opposite actually.
From research. Age-related testicular atrophy
There are very few studies on rapamycin in male reproductive system aging. Only one study noted that rapamycin protected against age-caused testicular atrophy by increasing spermatid, spermatocyte, differentiating spermatogonia, and primary spermatogonia numbers ( Wilkinson et al., 2012 ). Overall, these studies suggest that rapamycin has the potential for protecting healthy aging of the reproductive system.
Our guy was intact until the age of about 11 or 12 when we were required to neuter him for boarding. He went downhill rapidly afterwards and went from 12 to 17 pounds despite no changes in activity or food intake. In January it will be 3 years since we started him on rapa and he rapidly improved with his weight normalizing to 13 pounds pretty quickly. He’s very active and loving life these days and even humps our dachshund (excuse me)!
