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Replication studies in longevity: puzzling findings in Danish centenarians at the 3′APOB–VNTR locus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2001

O. VARCASIA
Affiliation:
Cell Biology Department, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy
S. GARASTO
Affiliation:
Cell Biology Department, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy
T. RIZZA
Affiliation:
Cell Biology Department, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy
K. ANDERSEN-RANBERG
Affiliation:
Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health and Aging Research Center, University of Southern Denmark – Odense University, Denmark
B. JEUNE
Affiliation:
Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health and Aging Research Center, University of Southern Denmark – Odense University, Denmark
L. BATHUM
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Odense University Hospital, Denmark
K. ANDREEV
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Q. TAN
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
A. I. YASHIN
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
M. BONAFÈ
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Pathology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
C. FRANCESCHI
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Pathology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Italian National Institute for Aging Research, Ancona, Italy
G. DE BENEDICTIS
Affiliation:
Cell Biology Department, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy
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Abstract

In Danes we replicated the 3′APOB–VNTR gene/longevity association study previously carried out in Italians, by which the Small alleles (less than 35 repeats) had been identified as frailty alleles for longevity. In Danes, neither genotype nor allele frequencies differed between centenarians and 20–64-year-old subjects. However, when Danish and Italian data were compared, a significant difference (p = 0.0004) was found between the frequencies of Small alleles in youths, which disappeared in centenarians (p = 0.290). Furthermore, the demographic-genetic approach revealed in Danes a significant gene–sex interaction relevant to Long alleles (more than 37 repeats). The different findings in Denmark and Italy suggest that gene/longevity associations are population-specific, and heavily affected by the population-specific genetic and environmental history.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University College London 2001

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