Dietary restriction and presbyacusis: periods of restriction and auditory threshold losses in the CBA/J mouse.

Dietary restriction was imposed on CBA/J mice, animals which develop presbyacusis late in their lives. Animals restricted for their whole lives, as well as those restricted after midlife, had less presbyacusis than did control mice fed ad libitum. Dietary restriction did not increase the life spans of these mice. Restriction until midlife did not protect from presbyacusis, nor did it increase life span. In this genotype, dietary restriction protects against hearing loss only if it occurs at the age of most rapid decline of cochlear function.