No disease in the brain of a 115-year-old woman.
Are there limits to the duration of high quality of life? Are there limits to healthy life for a human brain? We have had the opportunity to evaluate the performance of a 112-113-year-old woman and perform full pathological examination of her body immediately after death at the age of 115. The psychological tests revealed that her general performance was above average of healthy adults of 60-75 years. The pathological observations revealed almost no atherosclerotic changes throughout the body. In the brain almost no beta-amyloid plaques or vascular changes were found and only slight accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau protein with a Braak-stage 2. Counts of the number of locus coeruleus neurons corresponded with the number of neurons found in the brains of healthy people of 60-80 years old. Our observations indicate that the limits of human cognitive function extends far beyond the range that is currently enjoyed by most individuals and that brain disease, even in supercentanarians, is not inevitable.
den Dunnen
Wilfred F A
WF
Department of Pathology and Medical Biology, University Medical Centre Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, P.O. Box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands. w.f.a.den.dunnen@path.umcg.nl
Brouwer
Wiebo H
WH
Bijlard
Eveline
E
Kamphuis
Jeanine
J
van Linschoten
Klaas
K
Eggens-Meijer
Ellie
E
Holstege
Gert
G
D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006801:Humans; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000473:pathology*