Workpackage number 2 (WP2)
Leader: INRCA (Dr. E. Mocchegiani)
Healthy Ageing and zinc supply
Partecipants: INRCA, HU
Objectives:
The WP2 has the main task to gain knowledge on healthy ageing and longevity through nutritional zinc.
1) Establishment of a DNA bank from granulocytes of old (about 800) and nonagenarian (about 120) subjects as well as of ill old patients (about 120) affected by severe bronchoalveolar infections (40), cancer (40) and athero-sclerosis (40).
2) Genetic screening of all recruited subjects (old, nonagenarians and ill old patients, for a total of about 1.040 individuals) for zinc-dependent polymorphisms in different donors as a function of gender.
3) Assessment of different distributions of allele frequencies in the elderly related to gender.
4) Determination of zinc ion bioavailability.
5) Evaluation of the psycho-social condition, cognitive performance and lifestyle (diet in particular) in recruited subjects.
6) To assess the efficacy of zinc supplementation for healthy ageing in the elderly, in particular in restoring the immune response against oxidative stress with subsequent low risk for the appearance of age-related diseases.