A DUTCH woman who was the oldest person in the world when she died aged 115 is having her DNA examined to see if it contained a gene which protected her against dementia – and could hold the secret to diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, who died of gastric cancer in 2005 and left her body to medical science, has become the oldest person ever to have her complete genetic code – or genome – sequenced, in an effort to establish how she remained mentally sharp right up to her death.
According to scientists at the Free University of Amsterdam medical centre, Van Andel-Schipper’s brain showed no signs of dementia when she died – nor were there any signs of other conditions usually associated with old age, such as hardening of the arteries.
Studies carried out when she was 113 showed that she scored the equivalent in memory tests to a woman in the 60-75 age bracket – although she was by then beginning to develop problems with her eyesight.
Doctors who carried out the tests said she attributed her rude good health to not smoking, drinking only a modest amount of alcohol – “a small Advocaat with cream on Sundays and holidays” – and eating plenty of the Dutch national favourite, pickled herring. She was also, they said, an enthusiastic follower of Ajax Football Club right up to the time of her death. Asked once to divulge her secret, she replied mischievously “keep breathing”.
Dr Henne Holstege, who is leading the study, said the aim now was to examine Van Andel-Schipper’s DNA to establish whether specific genetic mutations had developed in her blood and brain tissue which had accidentally provided her with the recipe for long life.
As the scientists search for Van Andel-Schipper’s secret, the Netherlands’s oldest woman, Anna Goorman-Dommerholt, yesterday turned 109, and spent the day celebrating with her 80-year-old son and daughter-in-law. The country’s oldest man, Rotterdammer Cor Geurtz, turned 109 in May.