Telomere Shortening and Aging

Whatever the mechanisms linking shortening telomeres to aging, the decline appears to accelerate at age 50: "Telomeres play a role in cellular aging and they may also contribute to the genetic basis of human aging and longevity. A gradual loss of the telomeric repeat sequences has been reported in adult tissue specimens. ... There was a tendency that the age-adjusted telomere length was longer in females than that observed in males, while males lose the telomeric sequence faster than females. These data indicated that the percentage of longer telomeres fragments decreased, while the shortest fragments increased quickly with age. In addition, the longest telomere fragments decreased and the short fragments increased with a relatively stable frequency with age. There was also a significant difference in the longest telomere fragment percentage between males and female in their 40s and 50s ... the changing rate of the longest and the shortest range group [seemed] quite different before and after [age 50.] This contrast implies a drastic change around the age of 50 of unknown factors that affect telomere attrition."

Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17594061

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