A group of Spanish researchers has found that theshort telomeresare the main source of damage causing theaging of the human organismand has described for the first time thegenetic alterationswhy this phenomenon takes place.
As cells divide to form new cells, they transmit a smaller amount of genetic material (DNA) due to the progressive loss of protective DNA structures called telomeres. When thetelomeres are shortened below a minimum length, cells interrupt their cell cycle and stop regenerating tissues, thus causing the aging of the entire organism.
The researcher María Blasco and her colleagues fromNational Cancer Research Center(CNIO) have taken a further step in understanding this mechanism by identifying a series of genetic changes generated byshort telomeres. These cause adecreased ability of cells to divideas well as its ability to repair DNA damage. Details are published today in the magazinePNAS.
Blasco’s team showed last year that the relationship between telomeres and aging also appeared in mammals. Mice treated withtelomerasa, the enzyme that controls the integrity of the extreme portions of chromosomes, age later and live up to 40 percent longer. How muchlonger telomeres, located in the final part of the chromosomes, more times a cell can multiply, including stem cells that regenerate tissues, and therefore the organism remainsyounger for longer.
