engleski

Longer telomeres are not a positive indicator of extreme longevity (95 years and above) in long- lived individuals

Introduction: Telomere shortening is one of the best researched causes of cellular aging, and a positive relation of longer telomeres with human longevity is found in many studies. This study aimed to explore whether relative telomere length (RTL) is a good biomarker for extreme longevity in long-lived individuals (85+ years). Additionally, the relation of RTL and longevity genes is tested. Materials and Methods: RTL was measured for 314 Croatian individuals aged 85 years and upwards, and their ages at death were determined 10 years later. 42 SNPs were selected due to their prior association with human longevity and genotyped for this sample. Results: In this group of elderly individuals a negative correlation of RTL and age at death (r=-0.114 ; p=0.043) is found, and binary logistic regression indicates longer RTL as a negative predictor (p=0.024) for reaching 95 years of age. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that 42 selected longevity genes’ loci explained 34.4% of RTL variance. It also pointed to SH2B3 rs3184504 (p=0.007) and LPA rs10455872 (p=0.027) being significantly related to RTL. This relation was confirmed by t-test showing significant differences in mean RTL among genotypes: both the TT homozygote of rs3184504 and AA homozygote of rs10455872 were related with shorter RTL. Conclusions: For long-lived individuals telomere length is not a positive predictor for the age of death, especially for the oldest old category. Further studies are needed to explore the impact of various longevity genes on RTL in elderly individuals. Funding: Croatian Science Foundation (IP-01-2018-2497).

relative telomere length, longevity, extreme survival, longevity genes

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