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Further work is required to fully elucidate the ity-related differences in human capacity.

Acknowledgements We want to thank M. Legrand, C. Billon, L. Cazes and F. Dufour, for technical assistance, as well as many physicians for their help in collecting the centenarian blood sam- ples; C. Guidicelli, C. Massart, J.C. Beaudoin and H. Bui for tech- nical assistance in sequencing; G. de Murcia for personal commu- nication and helpful discussion. This work was supported by the Concerted Action Programme on “Molecular gerontology: the identification of links between ageing and the onset of age-related diseases (MOLGERON)”, sponsored by the EU Commission (BMH1 CT94 1710) (F.S., A.B.) and in part by the Deutsche For- schungsgemeinschaft (Bu 698/2–4) (A.B.).

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