What does biology tell us about gender and longevity?
In the late fall of 1846, 87 California-bound pioneers found themselves stranded in the deepening snows of the Sierra Nevada mountains with little food and inept leadership, and with winter coming on fast. It would be months before rescue —if at all — was likely. This was the Donner Party, now infamous because some ultimately resorted to murder and cannibalism for survival.
That is still true today: Women live longer in all countries with reliable record-keeping. They survive better as infants, adolescents, adults and in old age. Similarly, other mice in Dubal’s study were engineered to develop female reproductive parts whether they had the normal two X chromosomes or an X and a Y pair like normal males. The surprising result was that having two X chromosomes led to longer mouse life, regardless of whether their reproductive sex was male or female. At this point, it isn’t clear whether the survival advantage is due to having two Xs or lacking the Y chromosome.
Inactivating RICTOR in the liver alone has no effect on female longevity, but shortens the lives of male mice. Dr. Lamming is testing whether sex hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone, affect what RICTOR does in the liver, and whether these hormones are important regulators of mouse longevity. So, the more we understand sex differences and aging, the better we can understand which of these health-extending medications might be more beneficial to men versus women, or vice versa.
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