Japanese Centenarians Give
Gene Clues to Long Life

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some people who reach 100 years of age have particularly healthy levels of cholesterol in their blood, and genetic makeup may be responsible, according to the results of a study of Japanese centenarians.

The study of 75 Japanese men and women at least 100 years old and 73 individuals whose average age was about 63 years found that the centenarians had lower levels of total cholesterol and LDL (''bad'') cholesterol compared with their younger peers.

The investigators also found that the over-100 group had lower apolipoprotein B (apo B), a cholesterol-carrying compound linked to increased risk of heart disease, compared with study participants in their 60s.

The only factor that seemed to influence these levels was a gene coding for apolipoprotein E, a molecule that comes in three forms--E2, E3, and E4. In general, people inherit two copies of apo E, one from each parent.

In the study, those centenarians with at least one gene coding for apo E2 had low levels of LDL and apo B.

The presence of the gene was even more important than modifiable risk factors such as nutritional status and physical activity, suggesting that lower concentrations of apo B ``may be long-standing and mainly responsible for genetic factors,'' according to Dr. Yasumichi Arai from Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues.

Overall, 9 out of 75, or 12%, of the centenarians had the apo E2 gene, a much higher frequency than found in the general Japanese population (0.023% to 0.037%).

In other findings, the centenarians in general had lower levels of HDL (''good'') cholesterol than their younger counterparts. Those elderly with low HDL were more likely to be frail, undernourished and to have dementia, according to the report in the November issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

However, those with apo E2 were more likely to have normal levels of HDL.

``Apo E status appears to be a significant determinant of longevity that is imbedded in the genome at conception but that exerts continuing influence upon longevity across one's entire life span--even beyond age 100,'' Dr. William R. Hazzard of the Veteran's Administration Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, Washington, writes in an accompanying editorial.

``Even in persons of extraordinary longevity, those having at least one E2 (gene) would appear to be a favored subset, 'elite centenarians' as it were,'' Hazzard writes.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2001;49:1434-1441,

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