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Table 2

Mortality risk according to GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes in a 7 year follow-up

Men (N = 234) Women (N = 447) Hazard CI b P-value Hazard CI b P-value 95 95 ratea ratea GSTM1   1 – – 1 – – (cid:2)/+ 1.16 0.81–1.67 0.44 1.14 0.85–1.52 0.39 +/+ 0.42 0.13–1.37 0.16 0.74 0.36–1.54 0.42 GSTT1   1 – – 1 – – (cid:2)/+ 0.79 0.42–1.48 0.46 2.46 1.43–4.23 0.001 +/+ 0.81 0.42–1.57 0.53 2.22 1.25–3.94 0.006

Mean follow-up time for survivors was 7.6 years (range 7.1–8.2 years). a Age adjusted mortality risk using the respective null genotypes as reference. b 95% confidence interval.

readily distinguished from carriers of one or two GSTT1 alleles using any PCR based assay, it is unlikely that this deviation reflects methodological problems, instead it may simply be a chance finding. In addition, the fact that the effect of the GSTT1 gene on longevity found in this study was restricted to women, without any a priory theory of this being a plausible possibility, implies that these results should be interpreted with caution. However, our results could add support to the hypothesis that longevity factors may be gender-specific and that males and females follow different strategies to reach longevity as previously proposed by other studies (Bellizzi et al., 2005; Christiansen et al., 2004; Lio et al., 2002).

In summary, we find significant evidence that the GSTT1 functional gene is a mortality risk factor in elderly women, and suggestive evidence that homozygosity for GSTM1 functional genes is a protective factor. To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study exploring the influence of GST gene polymorphisms on longevity. However, owing to the fairly low number of carriers of two GSTM1 genes as well as carriers of two GSTT1 gene deletions in most populations, studies including large number of participants should be performed to replicate the presented findings.

Acknowledgements

We thank Shuxia Li for technical assistance. This work was supported by research grants from the National Institute on Aging (Grant NIA-PO1-AG08761), the Danish Medical Research Council and the GENOMEUTWIN Project (Eur- opean Union Contract no. QLG2-CT-2002-01254).

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