Intermittent Administration of Rapamycin Extends the Life Span of Female C57BL/6J Mice

Arriola Apelo SI, Pumper CP, Baar EL, Cummings NE, Lamming DW · 2016 · The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · Atlas ID ARR2016

What this study shows

Intermittent rapamycin (2 mg/kg every 5 days), started as late as 20 months of age, extended the lifespan of female C57BL/6J mice. This is the same regimen that in ARR2015 spared glucose homeostasis and the immune system compared with daily dosing, so read together the two studies suggest the lifespan benefit can be separated from many of rapamycin's side effects. SCOPE: the abstract reports lifespan extension in females; it does not report side-effect measurements in this aged cohort, so the separability claim rests on combining this study with ARR2015 (a different, young male cohort). Full-text numbers not yet extracted.

Cited on mTOR drugs in development: Everolimus

Abstract

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Inhibition of the mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) signaling pathway by the FDA-approved drug rapamycin promotes life span in numerous model organisms and delays age-related disease in mice. However, the utilization of rapamycin as a therapy for age-related diseases will likely prove challenging due to the serious metabolic and immunological side effects of rapamycin in humans.

Read the full abstract on PubMed →

At a glance

Evidence type	A Animal model Marked A because it is an animal intervention or observation study measuring an organismal outcome (model: Mouse (C57BL/6J, treatment started in late life)); the code names the system studied -- animal work can be rigorous and still not be human data.
Study type	4 - Animal Study
Model system	Mouse (C57BL/6J, treatment started in late life)
Journal	The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences
Year	2016
Peer reviewed	Yes
Record last updated	2026-10-01
Source	DOI 10.1093/gerona/glw064 · PMID 27091134 · Free full text (PMC4906329)

Extracted findings

These fields were extracted from the paper with AI assistance and have not been checked against the source. Read them as a pointer into the paper, not as curated claims; where they disagree with the curated summary above, the curated summary stands.

Intervention	Rapamycin, intermittent (2 mg/kg every 5 days)
Target	mTOR
Model	Mouse (C57BL/6J)
Effect	Intermittent rapamycin started at 20 months of age extended female lifespan
Dose	2 mg/kg rapamycin every 5 days, starting as late as 20 months of age (route not stated in abstract).

In the Atlas

Links in the pathway map

Supports Rapamycin activates Longevity

Open questions that cite this study

Cited as supporting evidence for the open question Does mTORC1-selective dosing extend lifespan, and is rapamycin's glucose intolerance a cost at all?.

Cite this paper

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Arriola Apelo, S. I., Pumper, C. P., Baar, E. L., Cummings, N. E., & Lamming, D. W. (2016). Intermittent Administration of Rapamycin Extends the Life Span of Female C57BL/6J Mice. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glw064

@article{ARR2016,
  author       = {Arriola Apelo, S. I. and Pumper, C. P. and Baar, E. L. and Cummings, N. E. and Lamming, D. W.},
  title        = {{Intermittent Administration of Rapamycin Extends the Life Span of Female C57BL/6J Mice}},
  journal      = {The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences},
  year         = {2016},
  doi          = {10.1093/gerona/glw064},
  note         = {PMID: 27091134},
}

Cite this Atlas record

The record is the Atlas's own work — the evidence label, the extracted findings and the links. It is cited as part of the dataset, not as the paper.

Barton, O. (2026). Oliver's mTOR Atlas (record ARR2016) [Data set]. https://mtor-atlas.org/study/ARR2016/ · Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22059963

@misc{atlas_ARR2016,
  author       = {Barton, Oliver},
  title        = {{Oliver's mTOR Atlas}, record ARR2016},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://mtor-atlas.org/study/ARR2016/},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22059963}
}

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