Article    Table of Contents                    Full Text of this article    PDF of this article (PDFs free after 6 months)    Figures/Tables List  Services    Send comment/rapid response letter    Notify a friend about this article    Alert me when this article is cited    Add to Personal Archive    Download to Citation Manager    ACP Search                            Get Permissions  Google Scholar    Search for Related Content  PubMed Articles in PubMed by Author:    Perls, T.    Terry, D.    Related Articles in PubMed    PubMed Citation    PubMed

DETERMINANTS OF SUCCESSFUL AGING: DEVELOPING AN INTEGRATED RESEARCH AGENDA FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Christopher M. Callahan, MD; Colleen A. McHorney, PhD; and Cynthia D. Mulrow, MD, MSc, Editors

Understanding the Determinants of Exceptional Longevity

Thomas Perls, MD, MPH, and Dellara Terry, MD, MPH

2 September 2003 | Volume 139 Issue 5 Part 2 | Pages 445-449

Centenarians represent an extreme of life expectancy. They achieve their exceptional longevity in part by lacking genetic variations linked to premature death. Pedigree studies have shown a substantial familial component in the ability to survive to extreme old age, and a recent study demonstrated a locus on chromosome 4 linked to exceptional longevity, indicating the likely existence of at least one longevity-enabling gene in humans. The children of centenarians have markedly reduced relative risks for age-related diseases, particularly heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, and are a promising model for genetic and phenotypic studies of 1) aging slowly relative to the general population and 2) the delay of and perhaps escape from important age-related diseases. These studies and those of other mammals and lower organisms show great promise for the delineation of important environmental and genetic determinants of aging well.

Author and Article Information

From Boston University Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank the American Association of Retired Persons for assistance with participant recruitment and dissemination of findings, and the centenarians and their family members who participate in the New England Centenarian Study.

Grant Support: By the American Federation of Aging Research's and Alliance for Aging Research's Paul Beeson Faculty Scholar in Aging Research Award, the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Institute for the Study of Aging, the Alzheimer's Association, and the National Institute on Aging (grant RO1 AG18721).

Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest: None disclosed.

Requests for Single Reprints: Thomas Perls, MD, MPH, Geriatrics Section, Boston University Medical Center, 88 East Newton Street, Boston, MA 02118; e-mail, thperls{at}bu.edu.

Current Author Addresses: Drs. Perls and Terry: Geriatrics Section, Boston University Medical Center, 88 East Newton Street, Boston, MA 02118.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				T. Perls, I. V. Kohler, S. Andersen, E. Schoenhofen, J. Pennington, R. Young, D. Terry, and I. T. Elo Survival of Parents and Siblings of Supercentenarians J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci., September 1, 2007; 62(9): 1028 - 1034. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. CANDORE, C. R BALISTRERI, F. LISTI, M. P GRIMALDI, S. VASTO, G. COLONNA-ROMANO, C. FRANCESCHI, D. LIO, G. CASELLI, and C. CARUSO Immunogenetics, Gender, and Longevity Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., November 1, 2006; 1089(1): 516 - 537. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. F. Calvert Jr., J. Hollander-Rodriguez, J. Kaye, and M. Leahy Dementia-free survival among centenarians: an evidence-based review. J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci., September 1, 2006; 61(9): 951 - 956. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. B. Gorelick William M. Feinberg Lecture: Cognitive Vitality and the Role of Stroke and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Stroke, April 1, 2005; 36(4): 875 - 879. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D Lio, G Candore, A Crivello, L Scola, G Colonna-Romano, L Cavallone, E Hoffmann, M Caruso, F Licastro, C M Caldarera, et al. Opposite effects of interleukin 10 common gene polymorphisms in cardiovascular diseases and in successful ageing: genetic background of male centenarians is protective against coronary heart disease J. Med. Genet., October 1, 2004; 41(10): 790 - 794. [Full Text] [PDF]

				V. Mor and T. T. Perls Robine and Michel's "Looking Forward to a General Theory on Population Aging": Measuring Functional Decline in Population Aging in a Changing World and an Evolving Biology J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci., June 1, 2004; 59(6): M609 - M611. [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. Gong, O. Kosoko-Lasaki, G. R. Haynatzki, and M. R. Wilson Genetic dissection of myocilin glaucoma Hum. Mol. Genet., April 1, 2004; 13(90001): R91 - 102. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]