AGE-RELATED-CHANGES OF THE 3'APOB-VNTR GENOTYPE POOL IN AGING COHORTS

The analysis of seven different age cohorts (697 individuals from 10 t o 109 years old) revealed age-related changes in the 3'APOB-VNTR genot ype pool. By recoding the 3'APOB-VNTR alleles into three size-classes (small, S, 28-34 repeats 1 medium, M, 35-39 repeats; large, L, 41-55 r epeats), an age-related convex trajectory of the frequency of SS homoz ygotes was found. The frequency of SS in the genotype pool increased f rom the group aged 10-19 years (3.06 +/- 1.74%) to that aged 40-49 yea rs (8.51 +/- 4.07 %). Then it declined reaching the minimum value in c entenarians (1.58 +/- 0.90 %). The observed trajectory is in agreement with that expected by assuming crossing of mortality curves relevant to subgroups of individuals having different genotypes.