Memory Retention at Old Age: It is in the Genes!

The presence of CETP VV, a variant of the gene responsible for longevity, CETP, has been found to enable people to keep their memory intact and remember things clearly even in old age. These are the latest findings of research carried out by scientists at the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Yeshiva University in New York.

The study was carried out on a test group of 158 senior Ashkenazi Jews (all in the age group of 70 to 90 years). The conclusion of the study was that of this test set, the people in their 90s having CETP VV had twice the possibility of improved brain function than those who did not have the same variant. These people scored higher than the others in memory and concentration tests.

A separate study carried out on 124 Ashkenazi Jews in the age group of 75 to 85 years came to the conclusion that those of them with CETP VV appeared to have very less chances of suffering from Dementia. Such people were five times less likely to suffer from dementia than other people from this test group.

The findings of the study have been published in the December 26, 2006, edition of Neurology, the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology, and are quite interesting. As per the study, the number of people aged 70 and having the CETP VV variant comprised 8 percent of the test group. However, this number shot up to 25 percent in the case of people who were 100 years or older.

The build-up of fat in the blood vessels is often primarily linked to impairment of brain function due to reduced blood supply reaching the brain. According to Nir Barzilia, the lead researcher of this project and Director of the Institute for Aging Research, CETP VV is responsible for triggering the production of the cholesterol ester protein. It causes a change in the size of fatty cholesterol particles in the person’s blood, and makes them appear bigger than normal.

These bigger particles have lesser chances of sticking to the arterial walls, thereby reducing the chances of clogging of the blood vessels. The reduction of these clogs and deposits in the blood vessels is directly linked to the improved brain function and memory retention. Besides memory retention, this also reduces the risk of other lethal diseases related to blood supply to vital organs, such as cerebral strokes and heart ailments.

Barzilia further said that there was strong possibility that the gene also enabled the brain tissues to remain healthy in older people. This is because the brain basically depends on regulated blood flow to ensure that all its related functions, processes, and components are normal. He said the study and its findings assumed critical significance in determining the role of genetics in the aging process.