Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “longevity”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 253 records · Page 14Linked to original sources

Selection for increased longevity in Drosophila melanogaster: a response to Baret and Lints.

Baret and Lints [Gerontology 1993;39:252-259] have questioned the interpretation of artificial selection experiments for increased longevity in Drosophila. They suggest that such experiments cannot demonstrate the genetic determination of longevity, because line differences in mean longevity are confounded with erratic temporal variations in life span. Using 15,000 flies from selected and control lines developed by Luckinbill and Clare [Heredity 1985;55:9-19], we show here that when lines are tested simultaneously in a carefully controlled environment, they exhibit markedly different average life spans: selected males live 20 days longer than controls, and selected females live 10 days longer. These and other observations leave no doubt about the existence of heritable variation influencing longevity in Drosophila.

Animals↗

Nutritional factors for longevity in Okinawa--present and future.

Several factors, such as environment and heredity, are presumed to be related to longevity. Of these nutrition is believed to function as a regulatory factor. Okinawa prefecture is well known as the leading area for longevity in the world. We therefore examined present and past nutrition records together with the background of all the 88 centenarians (18 male, 70 female) who are living in Okinawa in 1991. Their leading occupation was agriculture, and they were in work until the 8th decade. They took rice or potato as carbohydrate with abundant vegetables and vegetable protein or fish protein. Although they did not take a rich diet it was well balanced, and was assumed to be related to longevity because of the decreased incidence of atherosclerosis; together with a good genetic background, suggested by the accumulation of longevity in their siblings.

Aged↗

Relationships between type and longevity in the Holstein breed.

The relationship between type traits and longevity was studied in the French Holstein breed using a survival analysis model. In this model, the phenotypic value adjusted for systematic fixed effects, the estimated breeding value, or the residual value (defined as the difference between the adjusted phenotypic value and the estimated breeding value) of the cow for each type trait was included as a risk factor. This was done separately for two subpopulations (registered and nonregistered herds) and with or without adjustment for production traits, i.e., considering true or functional longevity. For both types of herds, udder traits (and above all, udder depth) clearly influenced the length of productive life. There seemed to be a more pronounced voluntary culling on type traits in registered herds. The correction for the within herd-year class of production traits, as a way to approximate functional longevity, increased the importance of udder traits and decreased the weight of capacity traits. The same results were obtained when the phenotypic value of the cow for type was replaced by her estimated breeding value, whereas residuals had little impact. The relationship between longevity and type traits was most often nonlinear, in particular for udder traits, but in this study, no trait with a clear intermediate optimum was found.

Animals↗

Survival analysis of longevity in dairy cattle on a lactation basis.

An analysis of longevity in dairy cattle on a lactation basis is proposed. The approach allowed each lactation to have its own baseline hazard function, which gives a better description of the hazard than traditional analyses of the whole length of life. As a consequence, the overall fit of the model to the data was improved and fewer time-dependent variables were needed. Longevity on a lactation basis was defined from one calving to the next instead of from the first calving to culling. However, no new information was added and it was still the overall risk of being culled that was modelled. It is shown that no cow effect is needed in the lactation basis model because a censored record is not complete, a cow can appear as uncensored only once, and a cow cannot be censored after having been culled. Different subdivisions of the stage of lactation effect were tested and the first ten days of lactation were shown to correspond to an increased risk of being culled. There were no major differences in sire variance between the longevity analysed on a lactation basis and longevity based on the entire length of life.

Animals↗

Role of the pyrin M694V (A2080G) allele in acute myocardial infarction and longevity: a study in the Sicilian population.

A proinflammatory genotype seems to contribute significantly to the risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD). Conversely, the susceptibility alleles to inflammatory disease should be infrequent in the genetic background favoring longevity. In fact, in a modern environment, attainment of longevity is facilitated by an anti-inflammatory status. To evaluate whether inflammatory alleles of pyrin, the gene responsible for familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) may play an opposite role in CHD and in longevity, we examined three FMF-associated mutations, M694V (A2080G), M694I (G2082A), and V726A (T2177C), encoded by the FMF gene (MEFV) in 121 patients affected by acute myocardial infarction (AMI), in 68 centenarians, and in 196 age-matched controls from Sicily. None of the Sicilian subjects studied carried the V726A and the M694I FMF-related mutations. The proinflammatory M694V (A2080G) mutation was the only one we found, which was over-represented significantly in CHD patients and under-represented in oldest old, and intermediate values were in healthy, young controls. After adjustment for well-recognized AMI risk factors, the M694V allele still predicted a significant risk to develop AMI. So, according to these results, we suggest that carrying the proinflammatory M694V pyrin allele may increase the risk to develop AMI. Conversely, the wild-type pyrin genotype may predispose to a greater chance to live longer in a modern environment with reduced pathogen load and improved control of severe infections by antibiotics. All these data indicate a strong relationship among inflammation, genetics, CHD, and longevity.

Acute Disease↗

Opposite role of pro-inflammatory alleles in acute myocardial infarction and longevity: results of studies performed in a Sicilian population.

The major trait characterizing offspring in centenarians is a reduction in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. Because a pro-inflammatory genotype seems to contribute significantly to the risk of coronary heart disease, alleles associated with disease susceptibility would not be included in the genetic background favoring longevity, as suggested by our previous studies on inflammatory cytokines. To confirm whether genotypes of inflammatory molecules play an opposite role in atherosclerosis and longevity, we are studying the role of other proinflammatory alleles, such as pyrin and CCR5, in acute myocardial infarction and longevity. The results support the hypothesis that the genetic background favoring cardiovascular diseases is detrimental to longevity. In addition, they suggest that the centenarian genetic background may be useful for investigating genetic key components of age-associated diseases that are characterized by a multifactorial etiology.

Acute Disease↗

Longevity studies in GenomEUtwin.

Previous twin studies have indicated that approximately 25% of the variation in life span can be attributed to genetic factors and recent studies have also suggested a moderate clustering of extreme longevity within families. Here we discuss various definitions of extreme longevity and some analytical approaches with special attention to the challenges due to censored data. Lexis diagrams are provided for the Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish Twin registries hereby outlining possibilities for longevity studies within GenomEUtwin. We extend previous analyses of lifespan for the Danish 1870-1900 twin cohorts to include the new 1901-1910 cohorts, which are consistent with the previous findings. The size of the twin cohorts in GenomEUtwin and the existence of population-based, nationwide health and death registers make epidemiological studies of longevity very powerful. The combined GenomEUtwin sample will also allow detailed age-specific heritability analyses of lifespan. Finally, it will provide a resource for identifying unusual sibships (i.e., dizygotic twin pairs) where both survived to extreme ages, as a basis for discovering genetic variants of importance for extreme survival.

Adult↗

Analysis of longevity and exterior traits on Large White sows in Switzerland.

Records of length of productive life, from first farrowing to culling, of 16,464 Large White purebred sows from SUISAG were studied using survival analysis. The major aims of the study were to model the risk of culling within parity and to assess the influence of exterior traits, such as the number of teats or feet and leg scores, on culling. Culling was concentrated at the first day after each farrowing or at the first day after weaning. Weaning itself was mostly between 21 and 49 d after farrowing, with an average weaning age of 35 d. Because of the definition of culling date used, there was practically no risk of culling from these periods. The culling rates at different periods suggested a modeling of the baseline hazard function within parity instead of over the entire productive life of the animals. A piecewise Weibull function and a simple graphical method to validate its adequacy were proposed for sow longevity analysis. The risk of culling increased with older parities (P < 0.001) and with decreasing litter size at weaning (P < 0.001). The exterior traits analyzed (number of teats, and feet and leg scores, on a scale from 1 to 7) had a moderate effect on the risk of culling compared with other factors but were still influential on survival, productive life expectancy, and annual replacement rate. Sows with less than 13 good teats had 1.35 times greater risk of being culled than sows with more good teats (P < 0.05). Sows with an X-O rear leg score of 2 had 1.4 times greater risk of being culled than sows with an intermediate score of 4 (P < 0.05). Sows at the optimum score of 4 for the size of inner claws of the rear leg had 0.83 times less risk of being culled (P < 0.01) than sows with scores of 2 and 3. Furthermore, when a phenotypic index for feet and legs was used to group these variables, the effect was highly significant (P < 0.001). Therefore, a means to improve longevity is through phenotypic selection of replacement gilts based on exterior traits: gilts with 13 or less good teats or with extreme feet and leg scores should be culled. From a genetic point of view, sows with the best value in the current index for exterior traits had a lower risk of culling (P < 0.01), and therefore, it is possible to obtain a response for sow longevity via indirect selection for exterior traits. From 1999 to 2003, the trend has been to eliminate extreme animals on exterior traits. This may partly explain the improvement of sow length of productive life longevity from 560 d in 2000 to nearly 710 d in 2003 observed in the data set.

Animal Husbandry↗

[Physiological requirements for longevity].

Genetic background is an important factor for longevity. Life-style and environmental factors, such as nutrition, physical activity, smoking and alcohol, are also important. For example, obesity is negatively associated with health and longevity. It is known that dietary restriction is the most consistent method of extending life span in rats. In human, however, under nutrition as well as over nutrition is a risk factor for a short life. Losing weight is often dangerous in the elderly, in whom reserved physiological functions are limited. Smoking, diabetes mellitus and hypertension accelerate human aging, while physical activity and a moderate amount of alcohol is good to live long. Preventive medicine and health support are also important to promote longevity. Good results of new strategies such as custom-made health support and preventive treatment are anticipated in the near future. Accumulation of basic data in human aging and health are essential to the practice of preventive medicine and health support. A new comprehensive longitudinal study was started at the National Institute of Longevity Sciences (NILS) in 1997 (NILS-Longitudinal Study of Aging, NILS-LSA). The results of this study should be helpful for the practice of preventive medicine and health support.

Aged↗

Genetics of parity-dependant production increase and its relationship with health, fertility, longevity, and conformation in swiss holsteins.

Genetic analysis of production increase (ProdI), defined as an increase in production from early to later lactations, was conducted using data from the Holstein Association of Switzerland. This production increase describes the maturity rate of the cow. The data set contained 42,807 cows with a ProdI value. All cows had completed the first 3 lactations. Different formulas were derived for the computation of ProdI using 1) milk yields or energy-corrected milk yields and 2) yields from all 3 lactations or only 2 of them (first and second, first and third, second and third). Heritabilities of ProdI and genetic and phenotypic correlations of ProdI with somatic cell score, days to first service, nonreturn rate, longevity, and 27 conformation traits were estimated by univariate and bivariate sire models that included relationship among sires. Heritabilities for ProdI were low (0.06 to 0.08), but genetic variation among sires existed. For nonreturn rate and longevity, regressions on the sire estimated breeding values were estimated. Additive genetic correlations of ProdI were moderately favorable with somatic cell score (-0.22 to -0.33) and chest width (0.21 to 0.30), i.e., with traits often associated with long-lasting cows. Unfavorable correlations were found with angularity (-0.18 to -0.26). Regression coefficients from regressing ProdI on sire estimated breeding values for longevity tend to show favorable relationships between these 2 traits (0.10 to 0.20). Results show that animals can be selected for ProdI, as there is good genetic variation between bulls. ProdI is a potential trait to be included in selection indices, as it has favorable genetic relationships with economically important functional traits such as health, conformation, and longevity.

Aging↗

Relationship between United States and Canadian genetic evaluations of longevity and somatic cell score.

Canadian and US evaluations of Holstein bulls were compared for longevity measures (433 bulls) and somatic cell score (354 bulls). Bulls were required to have a birth year of > or = 1975, daughter information from > or = 20 herds, and a reliability of > or = 50% in both Canada and the US. The number of bulls with longevity evaluations was greater for early years because longevity information was available from lactation data and daughters were required to be > or = 3 yr of age for US evaluations; evaluations for somatic cell score required additional collection of data and did not have corresponding numbers of bulls until the 1980s. Correlation between longevity measures in the US (productive life) and Canada (herd life) was 0.60. This low correlation was expected because US productive life includes yield information, but yield is excluded from Canadian herd life. For evaluations for somatic cell score, the correlation between the two countries was 0.82. Genetic correlations with productive life were estimated to be 0.69 for herd life and 0.81 for herd life combined with protein yield. Conversion equations were developed to predict a US evaluation for somatic cell score from a Canadian evaluation for somatic cell score and to predict a US evaluation for productive life from Canadian evaluations for herd life and yield.

Animals↗

Role of insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 signaling pathway in longevity.

The insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) signaling pathway is evolutionary conserved in diverse species including C.elegans, saccharomyces cerevisiae, Drosophila melanogaster, rodents and humans, which is involved in many interrelated functions that are necessary for metabolism, growth and reproduction. Interestingly, more and more research has revealed that insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway plays a pivotal role in the regulation of longevity. Generally, disruption of the power of this pathway will extend longevity in species ranging from C.elegans to humans. The role of insulin/IGF-1 in longevity is probably related to stress resistance. Although the underlying mechanisms of longevity are not fully understood, the Insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway has attracted substantial attention and it will be a novel target to prevent or postpone age-related diseases and extend life span. In this review, we mainly focus on the similar constitution and role of insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway in C.elegans, saccharomyces cerevisiae, rodents and humans.

Animals↗

Worker life tables, survivorship, and longevity in colonies of Bombus (Fervidobombus) atratus (Hymenoptera: Apidae).

Survivorship curves and longevity of workers were studied in two queenright and two queenless colonies of Bombus (Fervidobombus) atratus. Survivorship curves for workers of all colonies were, in general, convex, indicating an increasing mortality rate with increasing age. The mean longevity for the workers from queenright colonies, 24.3 days and 17.6 days, was not significantly different from that in queenless colonies, 21.2 days and 20.2 days. In all colonies workers started foraging activities when aged 0-5 days, and the potential forager rates rose progressively with increasing age. Mortality rates within each age interval were significantly correlated with the foraging worker rates in all colonies. Only in two of the colonies (one queenright and one queenless) longevity was significantly correlated with worker size. The duration of brood development period seems to be one of the most important factors influencing adult worker longevity in bumble bee species.

Animals↗

Sublethal effects of larval methoprene exposure on adult mosquito longevity.

Larvae of Aedes aegypti were exposed to sublethal concentrations of the insect growth regulator, methoprene, and the glycogen content of pupae and surviving adults was compared and effects on adult longevity determined. The glycogen reserves in both male and female Ae. aegypti pupae were significantly reduced as a result of methoprene exposure. The longevity of adult females was also significantly reduced, but exposure affected neither the longevity nor the glycogen content of adult males. Adult sugar feeding increased the amount of glycogen in both treated and control females. The reduced longevity of adult females from larval methoprene treatment appeared not to be directly related to reduced glycogen, but rather reflected neuroendocrine abnormalities induced by this juvenile hormone analogue.

Aedes↗

[Effect of temperature on longevity and infection with the nematode Strelkovimermis spiculatus (Nemata: Mermithidae), a parasite of mosquitoes].

Strelkovimermis spiculatus is a common parasite of culicid species in Argentina. Effect of temperature on longevity and infectivity of juvenile preparasites of S. spiculatus was determined at 4, 10, 20 and 27 degrees C. Three containers with 100 ml of dechlorinate water and 300 preparasites (12 hour-old), were placed for each day and temperature, during 40 days (total = 480 containers). Survived preparasites were counted on 12 containers per day (three for each temperature). When number of survived preparasites was determined, second instar larvae of Aedes aegypti were added to each container in a 10:1 ratio (preparasites:mosquito) to determine infectivity of daily survived preparasites. Longevity of preparasites decreased at higher temperatures. Maximum longevity of preparasites maintained at 4, 10, 20 and 27 degrees C were 35, 30, 25 and 27 days, respectively. Survivorship of preparasites, exposed to the same temperatures, varied from 57% to 100% at day two, from 21% to 77% at day five and from 9% to 33% at day ten. Infectivity of preparasites maintained at temperatures from 4 to 27 degrees C was always higher than 70%. Extended longevity with maintenance of the infectivity capacity of preparasites, are important attributes to consider S. spiculatus an effective mean of controlling a large number of culicid species between 4 and 27 degrees C.

Animals↗

[On longevity among the population of Siberia and the Far East].

Demographic values of longevity have been calculated on the basis of population census data and mortality tables. Analysis of the present-day level of longevity in Siberia and Far East and its time course in 1979-1993 is presented. Regular reduction of longevity parameters from West to East and lower values of these parameters in comparison with the rest of Russia have been revealed. Negative shifts in the levels of longevity over the period of 1979 to 1993 have been observed for all regions of Siberia and Far East.

Aged↗

Life-cycle, longevity and fecundity of Blomia tropicalis (Acari: Glycyphagidae) in a tropical laboratory.

In the present study on the life-cycle of Blomia tropicalis, freshly laid eggs were observed until they developed into adults; the development periods between stages were recorded. The eggs took an average of 22.9 +/- 6.4 days to develop to adults. For longevity experiments, newly emerged adults were kept at 25 degrees C and observed until they died. There was no significant difference in longevities of the different sexes (p = 0.053). Production of eggs by mated females were monitored until egg production stopped and the female died. Mated females and males survived an average of 32.2 +/- 15.4 and 30.9 +/- 17.7 days respectively. The difference in longevity of the mated females, and males was not significant (p = 0.747). Longevity of the mated females was found to be significantly (p < 0.05) shorter than unmated females.

Animals↗

Longevity of the immune response and memory to blood-stage malaria infection.

Immunity to malaria develops slowly with protection against the parasite lagging behind protection against disease symptoms. The data on the longevity of protective immune responses are sparse. However, studies of antibody responses associated with protection reveal that they consist of a short- and a long-lived component. Compared with the antibody levels observed in other infection and immunization systems, the levels of the short-lived antibody compartment drop below the detectable threshold with unusual rapidity. The prevalence of long-lived antibodies is comparable to that seen after bacterial and protozoan infections. There is even less available data concerning T cell longevity in malaria infection, but what there is seems to indicate that T cell memory is short in the absence of persistent antigen. In general, the degree and duration of parasite persistence represent a major factor determining how immune response longevity and protection correlate. The predilection for short-lived immune responses in malaria infection could be caused by a number of mechanisms resulting from the interplay of normal regulatory mechanisms of the immune system and immune evasion by the parasite. In conclusion, it appears that the parasite-host relationship has developed to favor some short-lived responses, which allow the host to survive while allowing the parasite to persist. Anti-malarial immune responses present a complex picture, and many aspects of regulation and longevity of the response require further research.

Animals↗