Ceilidh

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

A genetic variation that leads to larger cholesterol-carrying particles predisposes people to longer, healthier life.

The variation controls the size of lipoprotein particles that carry cholesterol through the bloodstream.

Evidence suggests that smaller particles are more likely to embed in blood vessel walls and contribute to buildups that can lead to heart attack and stroke.

Bigger particles, on the other hand, appear to offer protection from such conditions.

Bigger is better

Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York, and colleagues have found that people older than 95 are more likely to have a genetic variation that leads to larger particles of HDL (good) and LDL (bad) cholesterol.

"Individuals with exceptional longevity and their offspring have significantly larger HDL and LDL particle sizes," the researchers write. "These findings suggest that lipoprotein particle sizes are heritable and promote a healthy aging phenotype."

The researchers studied 213 people aged 95 to 107 and 216 of their children. For comparison, they also studied 258 of the children's spouses and neighbors.

The longevity-predisposing genetic variation was discovered in 25% of those over 95 but just 8.6% of those in the younger comparison group.

Furthermore, children related to those in the over-95 group were twice as likely to have the mutation as those in the comparison group.

Finally, both those in the over-95 group and their children had higher levels of HDL cholesterol and substantially larger HDL and LDL particles than those in the comparison group.

Wider testing

While doctors don't regularly test for HDL and LDL particle size, confirmation of the findings could lead to the practice being recommended and more widely practiced.

Such testing could be important as researchers are increasingly researching the role of large HDL and LDL particles in protecting against more than just heart disease.

The research is reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (read abstract

Researchers Find Gene Linked to Heart Attack, Coronary Artery Disease