Hendrikje Van Andel-Schnipper

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The average life expectancy as of 2011 is about 78 years old, which we would consider as a fairly long, well lived life. However, an incredible woman named Hendrikje van Andel-Schnipper died at the age of 115 in 2005. van Andel-Schnipper was born in the year 1890, a time when life expectancy was between the ages of 40-50 years old. van Andel-Schnipper more than doubled that life expectancy and proved the impossible was possible! Miracles such as that of van Andel-Schnipper, are amazing, wondrous and mind boggling to scientists, but what they found in van Andel-Schnipper’s body was even more so. During the study conducted by researched based at the VU University Medical Center of Amsterdam, they wanted to find out as much as possible about her to possibly obtain a better understanding of how she aged so well. In particular, the researchers were interested in looking out how mutations in somatic cells occur as people age. During the study, researchers found 450 somatic cell mutations in her white blood cells. These …show more content…

As such, somatic mutations lead to ge- notypic and possibly phenotypic heterogeneity within and between tissues, and they may compromise growth or lead to a growth ad- vantage (Frank 2010). Because somatic mutations often occur during cell division, frequently dividing cell types are more prone to acquire somatic mutations than tissues that rarely divide (Youssoufian and Pyeritz 2002). Consequently, frequently dividing cell types, i.e., epithelial cells, hematopoietic cells, and male germ cells are vul- nerable to somatic mutations that may lead to tumor development or other diseases and disorders. Therefore, most studies regarding somatic mutations have been attempts to discover mechanisms leading to cancer and disease (Youssoufian and Pyeritz 2002; Erickson 2010; Hanahan and Weinberg

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