DNAprint Genomics (DNAG)

[frogdreaming]

cosmic,

I did not miss the discussion on telomeres, in fact I was an active participant.

Telomeres are tricky things. While they do get shorter each time a cell devides and eventually fail, they cannot yet be used to determine age.

This is because telomere length is adjustable, modified by the enzyme telomerase. A naturally occuring enzyme in the body. It is telomerase that causes telomeres to maintain their length in cancer cells thus allowing the cancer cells to become essentially immortal and reproducing in an unlimited fashion. Telomerase is essential in the growth phase of human development. Babies need to have the cells that they inherited from their parents to be renewed such that they don't carry the burden of their parents age with them.

Until the control function of telomerase is fully understood and it's application in different parts of the body, it will be very difficult to use telomere length as an indicator of age.

regards,
frog