Senescence-Related Changes in Gene Expression of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells from Octo/Nonagenarians Compared to Their Offspring

Mechanisms determining both functional rate of decline and the time of onset in aging remain elusive. Studies of the aging process especially those involving the comparison of long-lived individuals and young controls are fairly limited. Therefore, this research aims to determine the differential gene expression profile in related individuals from villages in Pahang, Malaysia. Genome-wide microarray analysis of 18 samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from two groups: octo/nonagenarians (80–99 years old) and their offspring (50.2  ±  4.0 years old) revealed that 477 transcripts were age-induced and 335 transcripts were age-repressed with fold changes ≥1.2 in octo/nonagenarians compared to offspring. Interestingly, changes in gene expression were associated with increased capacity for apoptosis ( BAK1 ), cell cycle regulation ( CDKN1B ), metabolic process ( LRPAP1 ), insulin action ( IGF2R ), and increased immune and inflammatory response ( IL27RA ), whereas response to stress ( HSPA8 ), damage stimulus ( XRCC6 ), and chromatin remodelling ( TINF2 ) pathways were downregulated in octo/nonagenarians. These results suggested that systemic telomere maintenance, metabolism, cell signalling, and redox regulation may be important for individuals to maintain their healthy state with advancing age and that these processes play an important role in the determination of the healthy life-span.