Genetic Variation in Healthy Oldest-Old

Genetic Variation in Healthy Oldest-Old

Individuals who live to 85 and beyond without developing major age-related diseases may achieve this, in part, by lacking disease susceptibility factors, or by possessing resistance factors that enhance their ability to avoid disease and prolong lifespan. Healthy aging is a complex phenotype likely to be affected by both genetic and environmental factors. We sequenced 24 candidate healthy aging...

Reduced telomere length variation in healthy oldest old.

Telomeres protect against DNA degradation at the ends of linear chromosomes. The number of telomere repeats is reduced over time in human aging. Using flow FISH we have assessed telomere length in 134 exceptionally healthy seniors aged 85 or older who have never been diagnosed with cancer, cardiovascular disease, major pulmonary disease, diabetes or Alzheimer disease (the 'Super-seniors') and 4...

Lipid and Alzheimer’s disease genes associated with healthy aging and longevity in healthy oldest-old

Several studies have found that long-lived individuals do not appear to carry lower numbers of common disease-associated variants than ordinary people; it has been hypothesized that they may instead carry protective variants. An intriguing type of protective variant is buffering variants that protect against variants that have deleterious effects. We genotyped 18 variants in 15 genes related to...

Becoming Oldest-old: Evidence

Oldest-Old Mortality in China

We find that the Kannisto model, a two-parameter logistic formula, fits Han Chinese death rates at oldest-old ages better than the Gompertz and four other models. Chinese death rates appear to be roughly similar to Swedish and Japanese rates after age 97 for both males and females. Because reports of age seem to be serviceably reliable up to age 100 and perhaps age 105 in China, we think that t...