Aging Animal Models and Longevity Assessment Core

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The Aging Animal Models and Longevity Assessment Core (Animal Core) will continue a nearly 25 year history of leadership, service, training and innovation in 1) providing new and established aging animal models, 2) administering nutritional and pharmacologic interventions, and 3) collecting lifespan and life-history data for investigators in San Antonio and across the nation. The Animal Core is an essentail pillar of the San Antonio (SA) Shock Center's overarching mission - to provide investigators with the resources required to integrate lifespan and pathologic data with physiologic (healthspan) and molecular aging phenotypes for the expansion of knowledge on the biology of aging and the identification of pharmacological and nutritional targets to promote heathy aging. The Core achieves its goals through the following Specific Aims: 1) To breed and age new and established investigator-driven rodent models to elucidate mechanisms of aging. 2) To conduct lifespan studies of genetically, nutritionally, and pharmacologically manipulated mice and rats. 3) To provide aging marmosets to facilitate research on mechanisms of aging in non-human primates. 4) To educate and advise investigators on the requirements for rigor and reproducibility in aging animal research. The Core is housed in facilities specifically designed for the exclusive husbandry of aging animals. It provides exceptional continuity of care and data collection by highly trained staff. It is the only Core providing access to aging mice, rats, naked-mole rats and a non-human primate model, the common marmoset. Over the past 5 years, the Animal Core has continued its history of providing services to many investigators across the nation, supporting multiple grant applications and publications, and contributing to impactful advances in the biology of aging including: a) identification of the first murine model of the human female survival advantage; b) discovery of the protective effect of calorie restriction on aging neural stem cells; c) demonstration of a central role for hyperadrenocorticism in the suppression of inflammation by calorie restriction; d) discovery of a causal role of H2S generation on kidney aging in mice; and e) establishing the first interventional lifespan extension study with a pharmacologic agent in marmosets. These and other advances enabled by the Animal Core underscore its importance as a generator of biogerontologic discovery.