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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Lifelong soya consumption in males does not increase lifespan but increases health span under a metabolic stress such as type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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Soya consumption can decrease oxidative stress in animal models. Moreover, phytoestrogens such as genistein, present in soya, can mimic some of the beneficial effects of estrogens and are devoid of significant side effects, such as cancer. In this study, we have performed a controlled lifelong study with male OF1 mice that consumed either a soya-free diet or a soya-rich diet. We show that, although we found an increase in the expression and activity of antioxidant enzymes in soya-consuming mice, it did not increase lifespan. We reasoned that the soya diet could not increase lifespan in a very healthy population, but perhaps it could extend health span in stressed animals such as type 2 diabetic Goto Kakizaki (GK) rats. Indeed, this was the case: we found that male GK rats consuming a soya-rich diet developed the disease at a lower rate and, therefore, lived longer than soya-free dietconsuming rats. This work was supported by the following grants: CB16/10/00435 (CIBERFES) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, (PID2019-110906RBI00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and RED2018-102576-T from the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science, PROMETEO/2019/097 from “Consellería, de Sanitat de la Generalitat Valenciana” and EU Funded H2020- DIABFRAIL-LATAM (Ref: 825546), European Joint Programming Initiative “A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life” (JPI HDHL) and of the ERA-NET Cofund ERA-HDHL (GA N◦ 696295 of the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme) to J.V. and PID2020-113839RB-I00 of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, PCIN-2017-117 of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the EU Joint Programming Initiative ‘A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life’ (JPI HDHL INTIMIC-085) to C.B. Part of the equipment employed in this work has been funded by Generalitat Valenciana and co-financed with ERDF funds (OP ERDF of Comunitat Valenciana 2014-2020)