Wheel running predicts resilience to tumors in old mice

Aging intervention studies are hampered by the lack of predictive measures for determination of individuals at risk of age-associated chronic disease. Assessment of physical resilience could be informative in this regard, especially for age-related diseases such as cancer. Voluntary wheel running is a mildly stressful physical activity that is easily quantifiable in the mouse but has not been studied as a predictor of resistance to tumor invasiveness with increasing age. Male C57BL/6 mice in cohorts of 4, 12, 20, and 28 months of age were allowed access to a slanted in-cage running wheel for 3 days. Three months later, mice were injected subcutaneously with B16 melanoma tumor cells and followed for two weeks before harvesting. No relation was observed between running distance and tumor burden in the 4-month age group. The 12-month age group showed a trend, and the 20- and 28-month age groups showed a negative correlation (P < 0.05) between running distance and tumor burden. Mice in the 20-month age group that ran longer distances had lower tumor invasive scores compared to mice in the same age group that ran shorter distances. In conclusion, short term exercise capability could be a marker for resilience to cancer, and possibly other age-related disease conditions, in mice.