These observations have important implications for human health, which depends in diverse ways on dietary lipid intake, and for human longevity, which is profoundly impacted by both obesity [ 48- 50] and insulinlike signaling [ 51- 53].
The evolutionarily conserved insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS) pathway has been implicated in longevity in model organisms, but its relevance for human longevity has generated much controversy.
The original GWAS of exceptional longevity in centenarians from the NECS and genetically matched controls generated a substantial list of genetic candidates for human longevity that included both novel and well established longevity associated genes.
The failure to identify canonical aging pathways by GWAS and GWAS meta-analyses has called into question whether these pathways are important to human longevity and health span.
While such mechanistic pathways are yet to be elucidated, our findings suggest that telomere rate of change may be an important predictor of human longevity.
During the Upper Paleolithic, expanding human populations accompanied a "creative explosion," manifested in symbolic art, body ornaments, and exotic grave goods, says Caspari. "With longevity, you have the ability to transfer information across generations, and that's really important for human culture".
Interestingly, not only is PI3K important for human cancer but is also part of the IGF-1 signaling pathway, which plays a well-established role in longevity [2].
What does this mean for understanding human longevity?
Lately, many tactics have been proposed for enhancing human longevity [ 4] with varying degrees of success.
