Offspring of centenarians have a favorable lipid profile

OBJECTIVES: It is well recognized that a favorable lipid profile provides p rotection from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Because the major ca use of nontraumatic death in the western world is considered to be due to c ardiovascular disease, centenarians (defined here as subjects over 95 years of age) are believed to possess "atherosclerotic protective" factors. Howe ver, it is impossible to study comparatively the lipid profile in centenari ans because of lack of controls. Assuming that certain genes responsible fo r encoding the lipid phenotype may be inherited, we studied the lipid profi le characteristics of offspring of centenarians and compared them with cont rol groups. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: The study was part of the Longevity Genes Project at Albert Einste in College of Medicine. PARTICIPANTS: Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians (n = 27, 98.4 +/- 10.4 years) a nd their offspring (n = 33, 67.4 +/- 1.4 years). The Ashkenazi Jewish offsp rings' spouses, who were not related by blood to the centenarians or their offspring, were used as a control group (n = 26, 68.4 +/- 1.2 years). MEASUREMENTS: The lipoprotein profile of the offspring was compared with th e above control group and to a larger control group (age and gender matched ) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III st udy (without the sample weights, n = 394, 60 to 69 years). RESULTS: Female offspring of centenarians had significantly higher plasma l evels of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels compared with controls (70.2 +/- 3.1 vs 59.0 +/- 4.1 mg/dl, P = .029). Male offspring of centenarians had higher plasma levels of HDL-C levels (56.2 +/- 7.1 vs 44.3 +/- 3.4 mg/dl, P = 0.130) and significantly lower LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels (95.0 +/- 6.0 vs 127.0 +/- 8.0 mg/dl, P = .009) compared with contro ls. CONCLUSION: Offspring of centenarians have a favorable lipid profile compar ed with controls. These data support the notion that a certain phenotypic l ipid profile may be transmitted in families and suggest that a favorable li pid profile may play a role in longevity.