HLA PHENOTYPES IN HEALTHY AGED SUBJECTS

One hundred and seventy-one unrelated elderly healthy subjects selecte d according to the Senieur protocol (57 men and 114 women), aged 75-10 4 years, and 405 healthy individuals (238 men and 167 women), aged 18- 65 years, were typed for HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-DR antigens. The purpos e of the study was to investigate a possible association between LHA a ntigens and Longevity. In the total group of elderly, an increased fre quency of HLA-B 16 (11.11 vs. 5.43%) and HLA-DR7 (38.33 vs. 15.67%) an d a decreased frequency of HLAB-15 (1.75 vs. 5.18%) and HLA-DR4 (11.66 vs. 24.15%) were observed. The HLA-B15DR4 haplotype was not represent ed (vs. 2.1%), HLA-A1B8 tvas found with a low frequency (2.9 vs. 3.4%) , and HLA-B8DR3 was very rarely found (1.6 vs. 10.1%), whereas the HLA -B13DR7 haplotype was observed with an increased frequency (6.6 vs, 3. 3%). These results are in agreement with other published data and sugg est that longevity in humans may be influenced by the genetic backgrou nd.