Another "centenarian gene"
Centenarians have little "bad" cholesterol
Obviously, its duration depends on the lifestyle. However, recently scientists have been finding more and more evidence that the ability to live long is determined by genes.
Spanish biologists have discovered several variants of the APOB gene that help a person live up to a hundred years or more. The work of this gene is associated with lipid metabolism, and due to its special variant, little "bad" cholesterol is formed in the body.
A team of geneticists led by specialists from the Spanish National Cancer Research Center conducted a genetic analysis of three Spanish families where there were at least two centenarians – brothers and sisters whose age reached a hundred years or more.
Scientists have found in these centenarians several special very rare variants of the APOB gene.
As the authors explain, previous studies have linked this gene to the peculiarities of lipid metabolism, when the body produces few low-density lipoproteins (or so-called "bad" cholesterol, excessive formation of which is associated with the risk of atherosclerosis) and little apoliprotein B.
An article by Spanish biologists on rare variants of the APOB gene in centenarians was published in the latest issue of the journal Aging Cell (Cash et al., Exome sequencing of three cases of familial exceptional longevity, in the public domain).
The genetic features of centenarians have attracted scientists for a long time. In modern molecular genetics, there are more and more methods that allow to find key areas associated with long life in the genome with varying degrees of accuracy. For example, in 2009, scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine received convincing evidence that telomere length is associated with life expectancy. Scientists then came to the conclusion that centenarians have a very important, but rare mutation. They have increased activity of genes that allow us to restore telomeres – the global biological clock of our body's life.
But molecular biologists from Boston University recently found 150 genetic markers that in combination help to live up to a hundred years or more. And it seems that these markers somehow suppress the genes of various diseases.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru26.08.2014