TY - JOUR
T1 - Exceptional longevity is associated with decreased reproduction
AU - Tabatabaie, Vafa
AU - Atzmon, Gil
AU - Rajpathak, Swapnil N.
AU - Freeman, Ruth
AU - Barzilai, Nir
AU - Crandall, Jill
PY - 2011/12
Y1 - 2011/12
N2 - A number of leading theories of aging, namely The Antagonistic Pleiotropy Theory (Williams, 1957), The Disposable Soma Theory (Kirkwood, 1977) and most recently The Reproductive-Cell Cycle Theory (Bowen and Atwood, 2004, 2010) suggest a tradeoff between longevity and reproduction. While there has been an abundance of data linking longevity with reduced fertility in lower life forms, human data have been conflicting. We assessed this tradeoff in a cohort of genetically and socially homogenous Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians (average age ~100 years). As compared with an Ashkenazi cohort without exceptional longevity, our centenarians had fewer children (2.01 vs 2.53, p<0.0001), were older at first childbirth (28.0 vs 25.6, p<0.0001), and at last childbirth (32.4 vs 30.3, p<0.0001). The smaller number of children was observed for male and female centenarians alike. The lower number of children in both genders together with the pattern of delayed reproductive maturity is suggestive of constitutional factors that might enhance human life span at the expense of reduced reproductive ability.
AB - A number of leading theories of aging, namely The Antagonistic Pleiotropy Theory (Williams, 1957), The Disposable Soma Theory (Kirkwood, 1977) and most recently The Reproductive-Cell Cycle Theory (Bowen and Atwood, 2004, 2010) suggest a tradeoff between longevity and reproduction. While there has been an abundance of data linking longevity with reduced fertility in lower life forms, human data have been conflicting. We assessed this tradeoff in a cohort of genetically and socially homogenous Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians (average age ~100 years). As compared with an Ashkenazi cohort without exceptional longevity, our centenarians had fewer children (2.01 vs 2.53, p<0.0001), were older at first childbirth (28.0 vs 25.6, p<0.0001), and at last childbirth (32.4 vs 30.3, p<0.0001). The smaller number of children was observed for male and female centenarians alike. The lower number of children in both genders together with the pattern of delayed reproductive maturity is suggestive of constitutional factors that might enhance human life span at the expense of reduced reproductive ability.
KW - Longevity
KW - aging
KW - centenarian
KW - fertility
KW - pregnancy
KW - reproduction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84859492779&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.18632/aging.100415
DO - 10.18632/aging.100415
M3 - Article
C2 - 22199025
AN - SCOPUS:84859492779
SN - 1945-4589
VL - 3
SP - 1202
EP - 1205
JO - Aging
JF - Aging
IS - 12
ER -