Pitkä

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haastatellaan, ja kysytään pitkän iän salaisuutta, niin ne kaikki aina vastaa sen saman: Kohtuullisesti kaikkea pöperöä, paljon liikuntaa, ja vähän viiniäkin. ;)

Karoliinisen Instituutin viimeisimmässä tutkimuksessa Uuden Ginean metsästäjät eivät sairasta valtimonkovettuma tautia, mutta jos muuttavat elintapojaan sairastuvat.

New Guinean hunters protected against arteriosclerosis
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have looked to the rainforests of New Guinea to gain a better understanding of the causes of cardiovascular diseases. The hunter-gatherers who live there are almost entirely free of arteriosclerosis diseases, probably due in part to an antibody which could be used as a vaccine in the Western World.

Cardiovascular disease as a result of arteriosclerosis is the most common cause of death in the Western World, but is extremely rare among those who live as hunter-gatherers in New Guinea. The reason for this disparity is not fully known, but is of great interest to researchers working to understand what causes arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases.

By analysing blood samples from people from New Guinea, researchers from Karolinska Institutet and senior lecturer Staffan Lindeberg from Lund University have now shown that part of the answer lies in the immune system. Certain New Guineans have much higher levels of aPC - an antibody which protects against arteriosclerosis - than Swedes do. Since cardiovascular diseases have become increasingly common among other populations in New Guinea who have changed their lifestyles, the researchers do not believe that the reasons are genetic.

"The results suggest that there are lifestyle factors which mean that our immune defences are less well equipped to deal with cardiovascular diseases than those of a population of hunter-gatherers whose way of life is probably what we are best suited to from an evolutional point of view," explains Johan Frostegård, a professor at Karolinska Institutet who was involved in the study.

According to the researchers, one possible reason for the improved protection is that people in New Guinea are exposed to a different range of infections than we are in our society. Dietary differences may also contribute to aPC levels being higher in New Guinea than in Sweden.

The research group has been involved in a long-term study of the significance of immune defence on arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, and has previously shown that aPC can be used as a diagnostic marker of the risk of cardiovascular disease.

"We hope that aPC can now be developed to give a new vaccine against arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease," adds Professor Frostegård.