Medium / long-chain structured triglycerides are superior to physical mixtures triglycerides in Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan through an AMPK modified pathway

Lifespan is a comprehensive indicator of health. Medium and long chain triacylglycerol (MLCT) is an emerging functional product, while there are two types of MLCT (physical mixtures of MCTs and LCTs (MCT/LCT), synthetically structured triglycerides (STG)) with similar fatty acids composition. The two compounds were reported to be associated with some positive benefits in health, while the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Here, it was presented that MCT/LCT could reduce the life span, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and catalase (CAT) activity of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), and increase the total lipid content, the reactive oxygen species (ROS), the MDA and the transcription levels of aak-2, sod-3 and cat-1 when compared with STG group. Further mutant C. elegans experiment proved that the aak-2 pathway is the key for MLCT-modified life span. The different performance of MCT/LCT and STG in life span might result from their inner structure diversity. Overall, our study may have important implications in using specific MLCT to promote healthy aging and designing targeted lipid for individual health.