Natural and artefactual aneuploidy in human lymphocytes in extreme old age.

At present it is generally believed that aging is accompanied by an increase in the numbers of cells with altered chromosome sets. However, the problem of aneuploidy in extreme old age (80 years and over) has hardly been subjected to systematic investigation. The purpose of this study was to examine quantitative chromosome changes and relationship between "artefactual" and "natural" aneuploidy in subjects from 80 to 114 years of age using karyotype analyses.