The Curious Case of the Backwardly Aging Mouse

This article basically looks at how telomeres and telomerase levels can play a role in life. Telomeres are short pieces of DNA on the ends of chromosomes, that help protect the integrity of the genetic material. Each time the cell divides, some of the telomere is lost. As the telomere shrinks there start to be more problems which division of cells, which can lead to many problems. It says that people with longer telomeres seem to live longer healthier lives, and that the enzyme telomerase is an important part of regulating telomeres. The telomerase activity decrease with aging which leads to telomere degradation. A research team in Boston showed this by running tests on mice. First they genetically engineered a mouse so that it did not have a working telomerase gene. This mouse lived a very unhealthy life, and died after only 6 months. This is significantly less than the average 3 year life span. Early on their livers and spleens started to wither, they became infertile, and their brains shrank. They said that these characteristics are similar to those that would be seen in an 80 year old man. To check the role of telomerase the team genetically engineered a rat so that the telomerase gene would only become active when a certain drug was administered. This mouse started out the same as the first, but when they turned the telomerase gene on it led to nearly complete recovery. The liver and spleen increased in size, new neurons were present in the brain, and they were once again fertile. They said that this showed that once telomeres are nearly fully degraded the cells don't necessarily die. They lay dormant and can become active again in the presence of telomerase.

I found this article very interesting, because I work in a biochemistry lap where we look at how different proteins interact with telomeres and telomerase activity. Understanding how all these work together could play huge roles in many different fields.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/11/the-curious-case-of-the-backward.html?ref=hp

Trey Young