Israeli scientists have found variants of the gene, which is responsible for an increased life expectancy. It turned out that the carriers of this gene are women with a growth below the average.

Specialists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine College of Medicine of Yeshiva University compared the genome of Ashkenazi Jews at the age of 100 and over, their descendants, as well as participants from the control group. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It turned out that long-livers and their children more often had mutations of the receptor to insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which is involved in the regulation of growth, development and differentiation of cells and tissues of the body. In the carriers of mutations, the binding of cells to IGF-1 was disrupted, which was accompanied by an increase in the level of this substance in the blood by 37%, the researchers reported.

Scientists also noted that women who were carriers of the mutant gene were on average 2.5 centimeters below those in the control group.

According to experts, in practice, this discovery confirms the view that injections of growth hormone as an anti-aging drug used in the US (and other countries) can be dangerous, since people with low levels of growth hormone live longer. Thus, failure to inject growth hormone can increase life expectancy, scientists explained..

Medicinform. Net.

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