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Plasma concentrations of transthyretin in older Sardinians including centenarians

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Background and aims

Plasma concentrations of transthyretin (TTR), a negative acute-phase protein, can be influenced by many factors including aging. Under physiological circumstances, TTR concentrations are very low in the fetus, increase slowly after birth up to the fifth decade and, then, decrease slowly. Some studies have shown sex-related differences up to about 70 years, when the differences disappear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the change in TTR concentrations in healthy males and females aged more than sixty, including numerous centenarians living in Sardinia, a large Italian island located in the Mediterranean Sea.

Methods

The study sample consisted of 211 healthy subjects grouped by age and sex (male/female ratio: 1:1). Plasma TTR was assessed using a non-competitive enzyme immunoassay (ELISA Assaypro LLC, prealbumin AssayMAX Human ELISA Kit).

Results

In subjects aged between 60 and 99 years, plasma TTR concentrations were higher compared to the reference ranges reported by CRM 470. Moreover, unlike other studies, sex-related differences in TTR concentrations were only observed in nonagenarians and centenarians.

Conclusions

We hypothesize that there are TTR-related genetic differences between the Sardinian population and other Caucasian ethnic groups. Further studies and a larger sample are needed to confirm our hypothesis.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge grants from Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, research team of the AKeA Project (P. I. Luca Deiana), Associazione “Isola dei Centenari”, Fondazione Banco di Sardegna.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights

The study was carried out with approval of the Ethics Committe of the “Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale n°1 di Sassari” and was conducted according to standards derived from the Declaration of Helsinki.

Informed consent

A written inform consent was obtained from every subject.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Molecular Biology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Sassari University, Sassari, Italy

    Sara Pasella, Sara Pinna, Angela Baralla, Andrea Mannu, Elisabetta Canu, Angelo Zinellu, Salvatore Sotgia, Ciriaco Carru & Luca Deiana

  2. Association “Isola dei Centenari”, Sassari, Italy

    Marta Deiana & Luca Deiana

  3. Epidemiology and Medical Statistics Unit, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Sassari University, Sassari, Italy

    Simone Dore & Giovanni Sotgiu

  4. Department of Clinical Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

    Arduino A. Mangoni

Authors
  1. Sara Pasella
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  2. Sara Pinna
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  3. Marta Deiana
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  4. Angela Baralla
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  5. Simone Dore
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  6. Andrea Mannu
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  7. Elisabetta Canu
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  8. Giovanni Sotgiu
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  9. Angelo Zinellu
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  10. Arduino A. Mangoni
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  11. Salvatore Sotgia
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  12. Ciriaco Carru
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  13. Luca Deiana
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luca Deiana.

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Pasella, S., Pinna, S., Deiana, M. et al. Plasma concentrations of transthyretin in older Sardinians including centenarians. Aging Clin Exp Res 28, 77–82 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0376-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0376-6

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