Progress on Understanding Why Human Growth Hormone Receptor Variants are Associated with Greater Longevity

A few years back, researchers noted that a common growth hormone receptor gene variant was associated with greater life expectancy in humans. There was some theorizing as to possible mechanisms at the time, following the usual paths for anything that touches on growth hormone or its receptor. In short-lived mammals such as mice, loss of function in growth hormone or its receptor produces small body size and increased healthy longevity. The present record for mouse longevity is held by a growth hormone receptor knockout lineage. In humans, members of the small Laron syndrome population exhibit an analogous disruption of growth hormone metabolism, and while there are signs that they might be more resistant to some forms of age-related disease, they do not live notably longer than the rest of us. It is usually the case that metabolic alterations of this nature, in this part of metabolism, have large effects in short-lived species and much smaller effects in long-lived species. Given the example of Laron syndome to suggest that the usual explanations regarding growth hormone metabolism may not be useful here, how might variants in the growth hormone receptor gene actually produce an effect on human longevity? Researchers have been working to answer that question, and in today's open access paper it is proposed that some variants reduce the negative impacts of raised blood pressure, or hypertension. Blood pressure is very influential on health and mortality in later life. R...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs