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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Longevity and cellular fatty acids utilization

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I found this recent paper on Peter's blog (thanks!). It's hard to read and lacking some big picture discussion. The study analyzed genetics of 598 elderly people (Calabria, Italy), age range 64 to 105 years. They found a strong correlation of genetic expression of UCP2, UCP3 and UCP4 protein with longevity. What does UCP do and what does that really mean? The following quote attracted my attention:

Recently, Andrews proposed that UCP2 promotes longevity by shifting a cell towards fatty acid fuel utilization thus pointing to a major role of UCP2 in modulating metabolism [75]. This hypothesis is somewhat supported by Barbieri and colleagues [76] who analyzed the Ala55val polymorphism in a human cohort of elderly subjects from an Italian population.

2 comments :

Zorica Vuletic said...

That's always exciting! With the optimistic tone of epigenetics and the ability to switch 'on and off' genes, by utilizing a moderate ketogenic diet, UCP2 (and 3, 4, and 5)can be switched on to our advantage!

Never accept what your 'genetics' tells you, one can ALWAYS overcome it...sometimes it just takes a conscious effort! Ameliorating diet is one of the easiest things to do anyway!

Stan Bleszynski said...

I agree! I think genetics may play a role in helping people overcome a bad diet such as high caloric high carb, by shifting the metabolic balance on the cellular level towards what is more advantageous.

The same may apply to genetic predisposition to better resist some plant toxins, for example in wheat.

People who lack such genetic adaptations, may simply follow a more optimal nutrition, lifestyle or more favorable environment to the same if not better effect.