Link: http://www.reuters.c...storyID=3613314
Date: 10-14-03
Author: staff
Source: Reuters
Title: Study Finds Gene Mutation Linked to Long Life
Comment: Nir Barzilai spoke on at the IABG on Cellular Nutrient Sensing and Longevity
Study Finds Gene Mutation Linked to Long Life
Tue October 14, 2003 04:58 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A gene that affects the size of molecules in blood cholesterol may help people live to be 100 or older by protecting against heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other diseases, a study said on Tuesday.
The genetic propensity may be inherited, lending further proof to theories that living a long life may depend on inheriting the right genes, the researchers said.
The findings from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, were based on a look at long-lived Ashkenazi Jewish men and women and their children.
The Jews of Eastern European descent were chosen because centuries of social isolation led to a genetic similarity that allows for more precise research.
Among 213 older persons in the study, the average age was 98, and nearly half were over 100 years in age. The study also looked at 216 of their adult children.
The researchers found that the centenarians they studied were three times more likely than the general population to have a genetic mutation that alters an enzyme involved in regulating blood fats and their particle size, leading to larger particles.
Their offspring were more than twice as likely to have the same mutation.
Ashkenazi families with the mutation tended to have increased levels of high density lipoproteins -- HDL, or so-called "good," cholesterol -- which appears to provide a protection against heart disease. They also had larger molecules in HDL and in low density lipoprotein -- LDL, or so-called "bad," cholesterol.
The study, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, said there is increasing evidence that people with small LDL particles are at increased risk for heart disease.
The Einstein researchers speculated that the larger particle size inhibits bad cholesterol from penetrating artery walls, where fats can build up as plaque.
"For this particular group of centenarians and their children, bigger lipoproteins do seem to be better," said Nir Barzilai, who led the research.
"Learning more about this trait, which appears to be highly heritable among these individuals, could do much to broaden our understanding of why they not only live extraordinarily long lives but also age remarkably well without developing many of the diseases typically associated with later life," he added.
