Caloric Restriction and ALS Hsp70, TNF-a, Bax, Bcl-2, the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2, caspase 9, cleaved caspase 9 and the ratio of cleaved caspase 9/caspase 9 as we hypothesized a priori that inflammation and apoptosis would be elevated in CR vs. AL mice due to the inability of CR mice to respond to stress. All statistical analyses were completed using STATISTICA for Windows (version 6.0, StatSoft, Tulsa, OK). Data are presented as means 6 standard error of mean (SEM). Significance was considered at P#0.05. Results Food Intake For the CR mice, food intake before clinical onset was 2.260.0 g/d for females and 2.460.1 g/d for males, correspond- ing to 59% and 61% of the food intake for AL females and males, respectively (3.760.0 g/d for AL females and 3.960.1 g/d for AL males; Fig. 1). Figure 1. Anthropometric measures in CR vs. AL G93A mice. (A) Food intake (g), (B) body weight (g) and (C) body condition of 23 ad libitum (AL: N, 16 females; &, 7 males) and 31 calorie restricted (CR, 60% of ad libitum: #, 21 females; %, 10 males) G93A mice. Data are means 6 SEM. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009386.g001 PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 4 February 2010 | Volume 5 | Issue 2 | e9386