Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a free-living nematode that has been extensively utilized as an animal model for research involving aging and neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, etc. Compared with traditional animal models, this small nematode possesses many benefits, such as small body size, short lifespan, completely sequenced genome, and more than 65% of the genes associated with human disease. All these characteristics make this organism an ideal living system for obesity and aging studies. This review gives a brief introduction of C. elegans as an animal model, highlights some advantages of research using this model and describes methods to evaluate the effect of treatments on obesity and aging of this organism.

Caenorhabditis elegans is a small free-living nematode that lives in temperate soil environments. It has been widely employed as an animal model in research involving obesity, aging, and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, because of its various advantages, such as small size, large number of progeny, completely sequenced genome, and short life span, over traditional animal models of vertebrates. These benefits contribute to an ideal research model organism. In this review, we provide an introduction to C. elegans and its applications in obesity, aging, and Alzheimer's disease studies, with the aim of stimulating scientists to use C. elegans as an experimental model in various fields of research.

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Piceatannol is a natural stilbene with many beneficial effects, such as antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, antiatherogenic activities; however, its role on aging is not known. In this study, we used Caenorhabditis elegans as an animal model to study the effect of piceatannol on its lifespan and investigated the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that 50 and 100 µM piceatannol significantly extended the lifespan of C. elegans without altering the growth rate, worm size and progeny production. Piceatannol delayed the age-related decline of pumping rate and locomotive activity, and protected the worms from heat and oxidative stress. This study further indicated that lifespan extension and enhanced stress resistance induced by piceatannol requires DAF-16. Since DAF-16 is conserved from nematodes to mammals, our study may have important implications in utilizing piceatannol to promote healthy aging and combat age-related disease in humans. © 2016 BioFactors, 43(3):379-387, 2017.

trans-Trismethoxy resveratrol reduced fat accumulation via the regulation of FAT-6 and FAT-7, stearoyl-CoA desaturases homologs, in Caenorhabditis elegans.