{"id":431,"date":"2018-09-24T21:45:11","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T04:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2018w112\/?p=431"},"modified":"2018-10-15T12:35:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T19:35:11","slug":"431","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2018w112\/2018\/09\/24\/431\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

What are Telomeres?<\/h1>\n

Telomeres are like the plastic tips at the end of the shoelaces; they are the caps at the end of each strand of DNA and they protect our DNA from becoming damaged.<\/p>\n

Telomeres were first distinguished in 1933 by Dr. Barbara McClintock. Recent research lead Dr. Carol Greider<\/a>, and Dr. Jack Szostak<\/a> to be awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine<\/a> for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by the enzyme telomerase and telomeres.<\/p>\n

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Diagram of Chromosome Showing Telomeres in Green Credit: Beauty Black Book<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Telomeres Shorten as We Age<\/h1>\n

Each cell in our bodies replicates DNA and divides. DNA polymerase is the enzyme in charge of DNA replication, but it is incapable of replicating the entire chromosome strand.\u00a0 Telomeres serve as a \u201cscape goat\u201d of dispensable DNA not needed for vital functions, so when DNA polymerase is ready to fall off the chromosome some of this dispensable DNA is lost.<\/p>\n

How Much Telomeres Do We Lose in a Lifetime?<\/h1>\n

To put it in perspective, we are born with about 11 kb of telomeres, that\u2019s 11,000 base pairs of DNA. By old age, we have approximately 4 kb or 4,000 base pairs.<\/p>\n

This significant decrease in telomeres suggests that each cell has a maximum number of cell divisions before it must induce its own cell death. Dr. Leonard Hayflick extensively studied this phenomenon and concluded that each cell can only divide up to 60 times. The maximum number of cell divisions is now known as The Hayflick Limit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Diagram Showing Decrease of Telomere Length with Age Credit: Defytime<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Promising Study on Progeria Cells<\/h1>\n

Scientist are in hot pursuit to find the fountain of youth. Dr. John Cook and his team conducted an experiment with promising results and with the intentions of helping children with progeria, a rare genetic condition which speeds up aging.<\/p>\n

In the study<\/a>, the participants, aged 1 to 14 years-old, had telomeres lengths of a 69-year-old. Telomeres length was significantly increased in progeria cells as measured by expression of telomerase.<\/p>\n