Science / Medicine : Gene Pattern May Tell Life Span

Doctors may soon be able to predict a child’s likely life span by taking a small blood sample and looking for telltale gene patterns that regulate heart disease, Texas researchers said last week. “We feel we can soon predict at a very young age the likelihood of an individual developing heart disease,” geneticist James Hixson of the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio said at an American Heart Assn. forum.

By examining liver tissue from young people who have died in accidents, homicides or suicides, researchers at 14 U.S. medical centers identified genes they believe affect cholesterol levels in the bloodstream and hardening of the arteries. These gene patterns can be identified through a simple blood test.

“The implications are profound for life insurance companies and employers,” Hixson said in an interview. “If we type individuals as being at high risk, it is conceivable that some companies, like airlines or trucking firms, might shy away from hiring them.” But he said the people at increased risk “would then adjust their diet or receive clinical treatments to limit development of arteriosclerosis over their entire life span.”