Abstract
A number of leading theories of aging, namely The Antagonistic Pleiotropy Theory (Williams, 1957), The Disposable Soma Theory (Kirkwood, 1977) and most recently The Reproductive-Cell Cycle Theory (Bowen and Atwood, 2004, 2010) suggest a tradeoff between longevity and reproduction. While there has been an abundance of data linking longevity with reduced fertility in lower life forms, human data have been conflicting. We assessed this tradeoff in a cohort of genetically and socially homogenous Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians (average age ~100 years). As compared with an Ashkenazi cohort without exceptional longevity, our centenarians had fewer children (2.01 vs 2.53, p<0.0001), were older at first childbirth (28.0 vs 25.6, p<0.0001), and at last childbirth (32.4 vs 30.3, p<0.0001). The smaller number of children was observed for male and female centenarians alike. The lower number of children in both genders together with the pattern of delayed reproductive maturity is suggestive of constitutional factors that might enhance human life span at the expense of reduced reproductive ability.
Highlights
The relationship between longevity and fertility has been extensively investigated, both in human and in lower life forms, but has produced conflicting results
The study population consisted of People with Exceptional Longevity defined as those who have reached a minimum age of 95 (PEL; n=525; 75% females)
Our results support the notion of a tradeoff between longevity and reproduction in humans
Summary
The relationship between longevity and fertility has been extensively investigated, both in human and in lower life forms, but has produced conflicting results. While most human studies have suggested a trade off between longevity and fertility [1,2,3,4], others have reported a positive correlation [5,6,7] or no consistent association [8,9,10,11]. These conflicting results could be partly attributed to unsuitable control groups, such as comparing individuals from different birth cohorts or to differences in socioeconomic status of study populations, incomplete data collection in historic cohorts and other methodological issues [12]. Ashkenazi Jews comprise about 80 percent of the Jews in the United States and are an attractive target for genetic studies of aging and mechanisms of disease due to their relative genetic homogeneity and sizable numbers
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