Gene regulatory network of supercentenarians reveals resilience agains hypoxia stress

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26640126
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Medical genome science
• Research Institution: National Institute of Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Inoue Ituro 国立遺伝学研究所, 総合遺伝研究系, 教授 (00192500)
• Research Collaborator: HIROSE Nobuyoshi ; ARAI Yasumichi ; Casingal Cristine R.
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 超長寿者 / ミトコンドリア変異 / 次世代シーケンサー / ヒトゲノム配列再解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Supercentenarians (SC, ages 110-119 years) are individuals who exhibit exceptional longevity (EL). EL is rare and is thought to be a combined influence of environmental and genetic factors, where genetic contribution is approximately 20-30%. It is likely that the molecular mechanisms of EL are shared with those of healthy aging - being free of age-related diseases and functionally independent in daily life activities.
To explore the genetic contributions of SC, we utilized RNA sequencing and iPSC technology to differentiate gene expression profiles of SC from the control (CTRL) subjects in the hypoxia condition. iPSC-EC from SC has the following characteristics: (1) a more robust stress response mechanism; (2) responds faster in the presence of stress; (3) shows resilience to stress; (4) and exhibits transcriptional stability. These characteristics might contribute to exceptional longevity.

Free Research Field

ゲノム医科学