%0 Journal Article
%T Association of Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups with Exceptional Longevity in a Chinese Population
%A Xiao-yun Cai
%A Xiao-feng Wang
%A Shi-lin Li
%A Ji Qian
%A De-gui Qian
%A Fei Chen
%A Ya-jun Yang
%A Zi-yu Yuan
%A Jun Xu
%A Yidong Bai
%A Shun-zhang Yu
%A Li Jin
%J PLOS ONE
%D 2009
%I Public Library of Science (PLoS)
%R 10.1371/journal.pone.0006423
%X Background Longevity is a multifactorial trait with a genetic contribution, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphisms were found to be involved in the phenomenon of longevity. Methodology/Principal Findings To explore the effects of mtDNA haplogroups on the prevalence of extreme longevity (EL), a population based case-control study was conducted in Rugao ¨C a prefecture city in Jiangsu, China. Case subjects include 463 individuals aged ¡Ý95 yr (EL group). Control subjects include 926 individuals aged 60¨C69 years (elderly group) and 463 individuals aged 40¨C49 years (middle-aged group) randomly recruited from Rugao. We observed significant reduction of M9 haplogroups in longevity subjects (0.2%) when compared with both elderly subjects (2.2%) and middle-aged subjects (1.7%). Linear-by-linear association test revealed a significant decreasing trend of N9 frequency from middle-aged subjects (8.6%), elderly subjects (7.2%) and longevity subjects (4.8%) (p = 0.018). In subsequent analysis stratified by gender, linear-by-linear association test revealed a significant increasing trend of D4 frequency from middle-aged subjects (15.8%), elderly subjects (16.4%) and longevity subjects (21.7%) in females (p = 0.025). Conversely, a significant decreasing trend of B4a frequency was observed from middle-aged subjects (4.2%), elderly subjects (3.8%) and longevity subjects (1.7%) in females (p = 0.045). Conclusions Our observations support the association of mitochondrial DNA haplogroups with exceptional longevity in a Chinese population.
%U http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0006423