Graduation Year

2024

Date of Submission

2-2024

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Neuroscience

Reader 1

Dr. Cathy Reed

Reader 2

Dr. Sangsoon Park

Abstract

Aging is an incessant process universal to all living animal species. Commonalities among interspecies aging mechanisms could therefore be used as proxies in research models to devise remedial strategies against age-induced physiological impairments. This study first elucidates how aging effects manifest across subcellular and systemic levels by determining how reduced ferrous iron levels differentially impact the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) for cohorts with lowered basal metabolic rate. In long-lived eat-2 mutants incapable of normal pharyngeal pumping, iron chelation by calcium disodium ethylenediamine tetraacetate (CaEDTA) treatment provided no marked increase in lifespan compared to that of wildtype (N2) groups. These results suggest that trends in extended life expectancy in slow-metabolizing animals are attributable to higher iron storage capacity, rather than to lowered levels of free iron. Next, we assess the phenomenon in which advancing age diminishes regenerative potential due to energetic allocation towards hypertrophic growth. The potency of interventional dietary supplementation of L-leucine, L-glutamine, and insulin following postnatal body wall muscle (BWM) injury is observed through transgenic approach and fluorescence imaging. Least morphological disruptions to BWM were detected in the group administered with lowest drug concentration. Combinedly, these two anti-aging methodologies relinquish the potential to healthily improve the lifespan of a non-regenerative animal species through simple biochemical modulations.

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Available for download on Wednesday, February 11, 2026

This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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