The extent and significance of telomere loss with age
D.M. Baird and D. Kipling
Department of Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK
By imposing a limit on the proliferative lifespan of some human cell
types, telomere loss and the subsequent onset of replicative senescence
has been proposed to contribute to age related disease. Whilst there
is a large of body of in vitro data to reveal the mechanisms by which
telomere erosion triggers senescence, technical limitations have
hampered our ability to understand the full extent of telomere erosion
in vivo. Thus far we have evidence of age related telomere loss;
however the lack of resolution of existing technologies does not allow
us to determine if telomere erosion is extensive enough to trigger
replicative senescence. This coupled with the considerable
inter-individual heterogeneity and the overlap in telomere lengths
between young and elder individuals render the significance of this
loss unclear. Therefore the link between telomere erosion and human
ageing remains theoretical and any evidence will at best be
correlative. However recent technical developments, including
quantitative telomere fluorescence in-situ hybridisation (Q-FISH) and
the PCR based single telomere length analysis (STELA), have increased
the resolution of telomere length analysis. These technologies promise
to provide the evidence required to address the full extent and
significance of telomere loss in the human ageing process. Here we
revue published data on the dynamics of telomere erosion with age in
the human body.
Key words:
telomere, telomerase, ageing
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