Hypothesis: pulse pressure and human longevity.
In exploration of the association between pulse pressure and longevity in humans, 3 hypotheses are briefly discussed: the fetal origin hypothesis, antagonistic pleiotropy, and the telomere hypothesis of cellular aging. The implications of these hypotheses serve to draw a critical distinction between biologic age (aging) and chronological age and, thereby, offer an answer to a question that presently matters most in the field of hypertension: Why has it been so difficult to disentangle the genetic components of essential hypertension and to identify the variant genes responsible for elevated blood pressure in a large segment of the human population?
Aviv
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Hypertension Research Center, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103-2714, USA. avivab@umdnj.edu
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D016922:Cellular Senescence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008136:Longevity / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008593:Menopause / Q000502:physiology; D011674:Pulse; D012307:Risk Factors; D016615:Telomere / Q000502:physiology