Red wine component mimics oestrogen to support healthy ageing

Some dietary compounds such as resveratrol, which is commonly found in red wine, can mimic oestrogen to activate anti-ageing proteins called sirtuins, finds a new UCL study. Some dietary compounds such as resveratrol, which is commonly found in red wine, can mimic oestrogen to activate anti-ageing proteins called sirtuins, finds a new UCL study. The findings, published in Scientific Reports , may explain the impact of both sirtuins and resveratrol on health and ageing. Resveratrol only mimicked oestrogen at low doses, but had the opposite effect at high doses, which may lend credence to suggestions that a small glass of red wine a day, but no more, can support healthy ageing. Study author Dr Henry Bayele (UCL Structural & Molecular Biology) said: "There has been a decades-long interest among researchers in the sirtuins, which are signalling proteins involved in processes such as DNA repair and metabolic regulation, and the dietary molecules which activate them." "Numerous studies in animals have suggested that these proteins could prolong healthy lifespan by preventing or slowing disease onset. But developing effective drugs or dietary interventions has been frustrated by a lack of a common understanding of how exactly they work in the body's cells." Dr Bayele investigated sirtuin-activating compounds (STACs), including resveratrol (which is found in the skin of grapes) and isoflavones (such as daidzein present in legumes such as soya), by analysing sirtuin-dependent expression of an oestrogen-responsive gene in cultures of human liver cells treated with different types of the compounds.