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finding is not unexpected, taking into account the strong linkage disequilibrium observed at these loci and their inclusion in the ‘‘TNF haplotype block’’ (40–42). In addition, a systematic tendency to frequency reduction is detectable in all the haplotypes containing allele A as the age of the sample group increases (Table 3), thus suggesting that the detrimental effect on survival shown in Figure 1 is in fact due chiefly to the A allele of the TNF-308 locus.

Conclusion

The present study has revealed male-specific association between TNF(A/G)-308 polymorphism and survival. This result not only agrees with the correlation found between this polymorphism and age-related complex diseases, but also with the idea that inflammation is a key modulator of the probability of reaching extreme old age.

from http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on March 17, 2016

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work has been partially supported by grants from European Union Grants GEHA (LSHM-CT-2004-503270), Emilia-Romagna Project ‘‘ER- GenTech,’’ FP6 EU Project ‘‘T-CIA,’’ and by University of Bologna ‘‘Pallotti’’ Research Funds.

Drs. Cardelli and Cavallone contributed equally to this work.

CORRESPONDENCE

Address correspondence to Maurizio Cardelli, PhD, Department of Gerontological Research, Italian National Research Center on Aging (I.N.R.C.A),ViaBirarelli8,60100Ancona,Italy.E-mail:maucard@libero.it

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