engleski

ACE I/D polymorphism and human longevity - Croatian senescence study

The insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the angiotensin-1-converting enzyme gene (ACE) has been suggested to be associated with disease and longevity but the findings are confounding. There are indications that the ACE DD genotype predisposes to several cardiovascular diseases including hypertension but it is more frequent in the aging populations. We studied ACE I/D polymorphism and hypertension in Croatian senescent population (85-101 yrs ; N=300) where we found no genotype association with hypertension, while earlier results in young Croatian adults (18-40 yrs) showed such relationship for DD genotype. Of the investigated risk factors for hypertension, age, female sex (OR=2.88 ; 95%CI=1.49-5.56) and triglyceride concentration showed significant influence, while BMI and cholesterol concentration did not. Further, we tested the association between ACE I/D polymorphism and longevity in Croatian population. For comparison we used previously reported frequencies for the general Croatian population aged 18-80 yrs. The genotype and allele distributions differed significantly between two age cohorts with DD genotype being more frequent in senescents than in the younger cohort (42.5% vs. 22.1%), and with D allele frequencies of 61.0% vs. 49.4%. This finding supports the association of ACE I/D polymorphism with longevity while controversial results have been obtained in other European populations. The established ACE I/D allele and genotype frequencies fit into the pattern of increasing gradient of D and DD frequencies in senescents from Northern to Southern Europe. Such genetic differences indicate that D allele - in addition to being CVD risk factor - might has some unrecognized advantageous role in successful human ageing.

ACE I/D polymorphism ; hypertension ; aging ; human longevity ; Croatia

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