Telomeres

(Image taken from http://www.cleansingmatters.com/
what-are-telomeres-and-how-can-you-protect-them/)

Have you ever heard of the Hayflick limit? no? Well, there is a certain amount of times that a cell population can divide until the cell division stops. It has been found that human fetal cells in a cell culture will divide between 40 to 60 times. It seems that the reason this happens is because of the shortening of telomeres.

Telomeres are basically a protective layer at the tip of each chromosome. Think of them like the hard plastic at the end of  shoe laces; without it the shoe laces would unravel rather easy. A characteristic of telomeres is that they get shorter each time the cell divides and thus is unable to sustain the chromosome.

There was a team from Harvard Medical School  that wanted to see the impact of telomerase, the enzyme that replaces shortened telomeres, in telomerase deficient samples. To do this they assembled an experiment to see if the reactivation of telomerase would halt or reverse the multy-system regeneration in telomerase-deficient mice. The team from Harvard was able to reverse the aging process of these mice, to be put in overly simplified terms. With their findings they are able to "support the development of regenerative strategies design to restore telomere integrity."

It's interesting to think that we are getting closer to come up with something close to a "Fountain of Youth." This brings out one major moral dilemma, at least for me. Should we even try to make a fountain of youth? What would the implications of increasing life expectancy to an even greater age? Are humans even meant to last longer? I'm sure we will come up with the answers eventually. For now it is very exciting to see the new discoveries in such an important field of Science.

Here is the PDF report for the experiment with Telomerase-deficient mice.

Jaskelioff, Mariela, et al. (2010, November 28). Telomerase reactivation reverses tissue degeneration in aged telomerase-deficient mice. Retrieved from http://natap.org/2010/HIV/telomreverses.pdf