Dogs May Share Human Aging Biomarkers, Dog Aging Project Study Finds

Dogs and humans may share some of the same biological patterns tied to lifespan, according to new research from the Dog Aging Project, published in The Journals of Gerontology. Researchers analyzed blood samples from dogs enrolled in the project, a nationwide, long-term study that follows pet dogs across the United States, examining metabolites — small chemicals and molecules created during normal body processes — to look for patterns associated with lifespan. 'Death is an easy outcome to understand,' said Dr. Kate Creevy, chief veterinary officer for the Dog Aging Project and a professor at Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, where the project's work is supported by the WoodNext Foundation.

Rather than focusing on individual molecules, the researchers analyzed thousands of metabolites together, looking for broader patterns — what Creevy called a 'metabolic fingerprint' — associated with earlier or later death in dogs. 'Those biomarkers do not necessarily cause an outcome,' Creevy said. 'When we find a biomarker associated with sooner or later mortality, we don't know that it's causing it. But if we understand why that biomarker is present, we may be able to identify what the cause of the relationship is.'

The team then compared its results with five large published studies of human mortality that used similar methods, and found the signals associated with earlier or later death were broadly similar across dogs and humans. 'The molecules that are risky for dogs or protective against a sooner death are very similar to those in people, showing that we share important features of aging biology,' Creevy said.

Pet dogs are valuable for aging research partly because their varied lifestyles tend to mirror their owners' diets, environments and activity patterns, unlike cats, which tend to live more independent and consistent lives. Dogs also typically live only 12 to 13 years compared with humans' average lifespan into the 70s, allowing researchers to observe aging and lifespan outcomes much faster than would be possible in human studies alone.