Procyanidins from apples (Malus pumila Mill.) extend the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Apple polyphenols (AP) mainly consist of procyanidins (PC), which are composed of (-)- epicatechins and (+)-catechins. In order to investigate the antiageing effects of PC, we measured the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans worms treated with PC. Treatment with 65 mu g/mL PC extended the mean lifespan of wild-type N2 and fem-1 worms by 12.1% and 8.4%, respectively, i.e., to a similar extent as resveratrol. In addition, treatment with 100 mu g/mL AP also significantly prolonged the mean lifespan of the same worms by 12.0% and 5.3%, respectively, i.e., to a similar extent as PC. In contrast, treatment with (-)-epicatechin did not extend the lifespan of the worms. PC did not modify the growth, food intake, or fecundity of C. elegans. Treatment with PC did not extend the lifespan of mev-1 worms, which show excessive oxidative stress, indicating that PC had no antioxidant ability in the mev-1 mutant. Moreover, treatment with PC had no effect on the longevity of sir-2.1 worms, which lack the activity of SIR-2, a member of the sirtuin family of NAD(+)-dependent protein deacetylases. These results indicated that PC has sir-2.1-dependent antiageing effects on C. elegans.