The first piece of the puzzle has been unveiled for longevity. Medicine that can reproduce telomerase genes necessary to maintain the length of telomeres is a beginning towards old age survival.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University made some breakthrough findings. A team at the institution established the link between longevity and the presences of a highly active enzyme that re-constructs telomeres. The research was based on healthy centenarians. This was published November 11, 2009 in an issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
What are the roles of telomeres? They have important functions related to biological processes such as aging and cancer. The significance of telomeres was made public only a few weeks ago when the Nobel prize 2009, for Physiology and Medicine was given to three scientists who defined the structure of telomeres and actually revealed how, telomeres actually shields chromosomes from degrading.
What are telomeres? They are the last particular of any DNA, the telomeres are found at the end of any chromosome. Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., University of California at San Francisco and one of the winners of the Nobel prize, compared telomeres to the plastic tip that are found on shoelaces. The plastic tip prevents the laces to separate or to scramble.
The process of cell division is responsible for the eroding and slowly shortening of telomeres. The telomeres become shorter with each consecutive, cell division. This process continues up to a point whereby the host cell is no longer able to divide further and fall into a category called cell senescence. The ultimate results of the lost of telomeres is that tissues and organs fail to protect themselves and the aging process becomes visible.
The research carried out at Einstein institution was based on a sample of Ashkenazi Jews, the reason for choosing this particular segment was that first, they have already been studied genetically and they are a homogeneous population. There were three samples. The first group of 86 elders had an average age of 97 and the second group was their 175 offsprings. The third group consisted of 93 offsprings where the parents had a normal lifespan (Less than 90).
The research on longevity was supposed to answer two fundamental questions. The first issue was to identify if the length of the telomeres was a cause for long-life span among first group. Second issue was whether the length of the telomeres accounted for a variation in life span.
Indubitably, the finding proved it true that telomeres are a determinant factor of life span.
According to Yousin Suh, Ph.D, associate professor of medicine and of genetics at Einstein said that the finding proved that humans who had an unusual long-life-span had longer telomeres. Their life span was mainly safeguarded due to the positive fluctuation in genes which assured that the telomere remained stable.
The findings portrayed that candidates who had reached an old age, had succeed mainly because of inherited mutant genes. The mutant genes did eventually make the telomerase production system dynamic and thereby ensured that the length of telomere remained of appropriate length. This protects the elders from diseases such as diabetic and cardiovascular problems that account for most of the death of elders.
The conclusion of the research was that the length of telomere and the combination of telomerase genes enables people to have a longer life span. The main reasons for longevity based on the length of telomere are that elders are protected from old age diseases.
It will perhaps soon be possible to develop medicine that will copy the telomerase that old aged people possess.
Mon, Nov 30, 2009
Anti Aging, Bioscience, Health And Aging, Longevity