Diets were restricted to 60% of the intake of the control mice by feeding less diet (total diet restriction, TDR) or by feeding fewer calories from fat and carbohydrate (calorie restriction, CR) during the initiation or promotion phases of skin tumorigenesis in female SENCAR mice. Skin cancer was initiated by topical treatment with 10 nmol of 7,12-dimethylbenzanthracene in acetone and promoted ...

During periods of reduced food availability, animals must respond with behavioral adaptations that promote survival. Despite the fact that many psychiatric syndromes include disordered eating patterns as a component of the illness, little is known about the neurobiology underlying behavioral changes induced by short-term calorie restriction. Presently, we demonstrate that 10 d of calorie restri...

Alarcon et al. (1) recently demonstrated that b-cell insulin secretory dysfunction is rapidly restored by exposure of islets to low-normal glucose ex vivo in db/db mice. The authors allude to the potential clinical relevance for “transient b-cell rest” in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Could transient b-cell rest be accomplished by manipulating diet? Lim et al. (2) have shown that a very low-calorie di...

All animals have limited life spans, and work in a variety of organisms has established that caloric restriction results in increased longevity. For example, inbred female mice fed an ad libitum diet had an average life span of 27 months, whereas calorie-restricted mice fed a diet with 65% fewer calories had an average life span of 45 months.1 The mechanisms by which caloric restriction retards...