Oxidative stress is linked to age-related accumulation of cellular damage and death. To date, caloric restriction (CR) is the most robust, non-genetic intervention able to increase lifespan and to reduce the rate of aging in several animal species. However, the mechanism involved in the anti-aging effect of CR are to date not completely understood, but it seems clear that a reduction of oxidative damage together with more efficient bioenergetic processes, specially linked to mitochondria, are mainly implicated.

Currently, our main research line study the effect of CR on the metabolic changes involved in a more efficient use of organic fuel by mitochondria and the antioxidant mechanisms involved in the prevention of oxidative damage of cellular components. The group is carrying out a research funded by the Junta de Andalucía (Consejería de Turismo, Comercio y Deporte) and also by the Spanish Ministery of Education and Science in which we will study the effect of CR and mild exercise in the bioenergetic of muscle and the oxidative damage produced by extreme exercise in muscle, liver, brain and plasma in mice. The main goal of the research program is to establish the mechanisms involved in the anti-aging effect of CR and mild exercise at several levels: muscle, liver, brain, etc We will study different parameters involved in mitochondrial activity in muscle and also several oxidative damage markers in different tissues and plasma after extreme exercise. Also, we are interested in study the regulation of the mechanism of synthesis of coenzyme Q, the lipophilic electron transport member of mitochondria and the main antioxidant compound in plasma membranes in CR and the role of coenzyme Q in plasma membrane to compensate the redox equilibrium in the whole cell.