Telomeros: The clocks of life

The human species has been able to increase its life expectancy year after year, however our biology places a limit on us.And the cumulus of damage in cells product of aging prevents our body from existing indefinitely, our life time is controlled by a kind of hourglasses...How long does we have left to live ? Can we be able to cheat the clock ? Come and discover more about telomeros.

What are telomeros?

All human beings have 46 chromosomes which are arranged in 23 pairs ; In general, it can be said that the shape of the chromosomes is similar to the letter "X", the chromosome is composed of long and short arms, other important parts are the centromere (central part that joins the arms) and the telomero (extreme part of the arms).

These telomeres are sequences of repeated DNA that are located at the ends of the chromosomes as " Capuchon ”, preventing them from deteriorating or merging with other chromosomes, which would cause serious genetic problems .Telomeres play a fundamental role during the cell division , the Shortening of telomeres during this process is inevitable and limits the number of times a normal cell can replicate , approximately 50 throughout life.The minimum size that a functional telomere can have is known as the limit of Hayflick and indicates that when the cell reaches smaller sizes it will begin its death process .Also being the telomere of chromosome 3 the shortest of the whole game, it is thought that it could be the trigger of cell death.

In other words we could say that very short telomeres allow a smaller amount of divisions causing a reduced longevity and on the contrary longer telomeres involve greater longevity .When we are born there are no significant differences between the length of the telomeres of men and women, however, as aging occurs, the telomeres of women end up being longer than in men, this phenomenon is still unexplained but could be the reason why Women tend to live longer years than men.

How to repair telomeres?

The secret to a longer life lies in the length of the telomeres, then being able to control the size of the telomeres and keep them in a good size could give us more years of life, since it turns out that we are not so far from controlling the telomeres thanks to the discovery of the enzyme 'telomerase' whose function is to lengthen and maintain telomeric regions.

Telomeros: The clocks of life

Experiments in mice have demonstrated the ability to increase the life of these animals even in a 24% after a treatment in which the production of the enzyme telomerase was induced.However, the danger is latent since if the telomerase concentrations are very high, it could ac tivar the tumor cells and cause cancer since they favor the immortality of malignant cells.Then the success of this therapy focuses on being able to extend life by maintaining the telomeres without producing cancer.

Likewise, Telomerase is normally active in fetal cells and after birth it is gradually deactivated in all cells except in normal stem cells and in some cells of the immune system.On the other hand, sperm and ovules already they have long telomeres and do not have telomerase activity.

Future applications

The immediate application is to test the effectiveness of drugs telomerase inhibitors as a possible antitumor therapy, alleviate the diseases associated with aging by re-introducing telomerase into cells with short telomeres, tissue production and differentiation in vitro from adult stem cells, which also need telomerase to divide indefinitely.

Telomeros: The clocks of life

The most promising application focuses on delaying aging, a common cause that triggers the appearance of diseases as the resistance to insulin or cardiovascular diseases, the incidence of which increases with age.Then, if we treated the aging of the cells, we could prevent the appearance of these diseases .that the study of the telomere and its telomerase will bring us many surprises in the not too distant future.

If you have been interested in this article, you may want to know more about why we need DNA from a man and a woman.

Comments

And you, also "procrastins"?

And you? Procrastines too? If you don't, we are sure that you know someone who does it continuously and that, surely, makes you despair.But what does this disturbing word really mean? Let's give an example: you have been dating a person for a long time, you make plans for the future, you have many illusions and projects, however, your partner never seems to decide.He is unable to formalize your relationship because something like that, not only overwhelms him, but even He is lazy. "Are we not well like that?" I often reproach you. Let's give another example: you may have the classic friend who never seems to finish his studies.It is easy to be an "eternal" university student who faces the responsibilities and anxieties of the working world. And what about people who spend all their time in front of a computer screen letting out "real life" ? Sometimes, it is much easier to let ourselves go, evading responsibilities, than to put means t...

5 things we only know who are nearsighted

Are you nearsighted? How many diopters do you have? If you wear glasses, you will surely have lived that decisive moment in which your visual specialist told you that you are myopic and that from then on, your life was going to be clarified thanks to some glasses.Those walking spots in the distance are over, and those blackboards that you could not read at school. If you are nearsighted, we are sure that you will identify with any of these dimensions. Would you add any more? 1.That comes from afar...Is he my father? Is he my teacher Is she my grandmother? How to deny it? If you are nearsighted since your childhood, we are sure that on more than one occasion you voluntarily forgot your glasses at home .You were in that age when you had not yet accepted them and in which you thought that taking them made you very unattractive. And you launched yourself into the world, to that world where distances are blurred, and people are little more than blurred masses with two legs (Al...

Worms rain in Norway!

Can you imagine a rain in which instead of falling water fall bugs and animals? Well, it has happened in several parts of the globe, and in this entry of Science Daily Online we tell you, don't miss it! The soil of Norway is full of worms Many times, individuals from all over the world have witnessed rains in which in addition to having water, they were accompanied by animals of all kinds.One of the latter cases has surprised many when they have seen worms fall on the ground in Norway . One of the first people to realize this strange phenomenon was Karstein Erstad, a professor of biology, who watched as worms fell to the ground surface while he was skiing in the mountains near the town of Bergen.According to his testimony: “When I saw the worms in the snow, it seemed that they had no life, but when I took one of them, I saw that it moved and was alive ”, I comment to the local newspaper of the city, collected by Daily Mail. After giving their testimony, other pe...

Did the Egyptians know the sperm ?!

We have dedicated many articles to Egypt, among them: "the doctors of ancient Egypt", "Hitler's bewildering love for Nefertiti", "the Book of the Dead"...Today we want to present a anecdote more than Curious: A sperm appears on an exterior relief of the Luxor Temple.After discovering it, the researchers, like you, wondered, is it really a sperm? Judging by the image, it is exactly the same as one...We discover the answer to the riddle! The sperm of the Temple of Luxor In the exterior of the Temple of Luxor There is a religious scene in which the God Amon-Min appears with a erection, ejaculating, in which a sperm is perfectly represented (as you can see in the following video). How can it be? How could the Egyptians know sperm if they are only visible with a microscope of at least 1080 magnification? The God Min is one of the oldest deities of Egypt , appears in the pre-Dynastic era; he is represented as a man with erect penis...

The man who killed 40,000 elephants by mistake

Sometimes people, with the best will , make unforgivable mistakes .This is the case at hand: The man who killed 40,000 elephants by mistake. The man who killed 40,000 elephants by mistake As paradoxical as it may seem, The cause of this disaster was an ecologist convinced: Allan Savory .Allan was born in Rodhesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1935.He belonged to a family of farmers and throughout his childhood he heard that the herds of wild animals ended with the pastures of the extensive African grasslands.Overgrazing was considered for decades the cause of desertification .Because of this, the land was no longer susceptible or of feed the flocks or be cultivated ada .This inevitably led to famine and, therefore, to conflicts between the various human groups that populated these areas. Following that philosophy, between 1955 and 1969 , Allan Savory worked in North Rodeshia and later in South Rodhesia as an independent research and scientific officer .His role was t...

The rare condition of elephantiasis

If I tell you that there is a disease called elephantiasis surely you will end up thinking that, by name, something will have to do with elephants.Well, no, we will not talk about people with a tube in the nose or ears, but it's just as curious, maybe even more. Lymphatic filariasis, a rare disease Elephantiasis is also called lymphatic filariasis and is a disease that especially affects the genitals and lower extremities.More specifically it is an inflammatory process caused by parasites or bacteria such as spirochetes or treponemas and that is transmitted through mosquito bites. And what causes this sting? For the size of the genitals to grow in such a way that the affected people cannot even walk.Incredible! Bacteria very common in tropical countries Generally, the bacteria that cause elephantiasis are common in tropical countries and people suffering from this disease usually end up with serious bone malformations due to inflammation that occurs in the body. ...

Did you know that Chimborazo is the tallest mountain in the world?

Internet, and before the Internet the books world almanac or Guinness records , are witness to our curiosity to know which are the most notable landforms: the most important rivers long or mighty, the deepest sea trenches, the largest lakes or the driest deserts.As for the highest mountain, the list is usually headed by Everest, and it seems logical that this is always the case because geographical accidents do not usually change Overnight, do you? Mount Everest Because in recent times this peak of the Himalayas has ceased to be considered by some geographers as the highest mountain in the world , and you will see why. Did you know that Chimborazo is the highest mountain in the world? The first blow to the pride of this mole that China and Nepal share gave it a Hawaiian volcano, the Mauna Kea .You see, Everest, with its 8,848 meters , is the highest mountain in the world above sea level (This is why heights are usually accompanied by the abbreviations “msnm”), but if m...

The countries with the most empathetic population in the world. You'll be surprised!

Do you know what empathy is? It is a feeling that seeks to accompany the pain or suffering of a person, If we see that someone suffers and we understand their situation and accompany them emotionally, this means that we are empathic.In which countries can we find the population more empathy? Can you guess it? The result may surprise you a lot. Countries with the most empathic population in the world You will be surprised! The Michigan State University conducted a study, recently published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, to determine where the most empathic population was in 64 countries in which the study was conducted .To do this, 104,000 people were interviewed online. The interview format mediates the compassion felt by the people and the ability to put themselves in the place of another .The results obtained are quite surprising, and it was found that the higher the level of empathy, people are n more kind, responsible, more willing to help others and more...

Better to study shortly or long before for an exam? You'll be surprised!

Is it better to study months before an exam or in the previous days? A study reveals the best method! Better to study shortly or long before for an exam? You will be surprised! Are you one of those who study the day before the exam even though they have always advised you otherwise? Now, science says that you might be right to do so because studying when stressed or under pressure favors learning . This is what scientists at the University of Bristol have said, discover that the hormones that are produced when stressed are causing changes in the cells, allowing memories to be stored more effectively in the hippocampus, the part of the brain related to memory. According to the Professor Hans Reul, who directs the research, stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline, change genes within neurons and increase their learning capacity . This The phenomenon is called "epigenetic modification", an alteration of the genome of cells to reprogram DNA in the brain and ...

6 Things that only happen in North Korea

There are places in the world that seem surreal to us.One of them is North Korea, where things happen under the mandate of Kim Jong-un that seem to be taken out of a horror movie like the ones we tell you below. 28 haircuts In North Korea there are only 28 haircuts allowed, such is the dictator's control over such personal and unimportant aspects as this.Men have 14 haircuts and can have a maximum length of 4 centimeters.Single women should wear it short. Both the cultivation and consumption of marijuana is legal Curious, taking into account the strict and extensive list of restrictions imposed by the dictator in his country. Ultra-powerful leaders Citizens must believe, and if not more they pretend well, that the leaders have supernatural powers. Since childhood they are told all kinds of stories, away from the re alidad, with the aim of making them submissive and fully controllable by the system. One of the examples is that of the father of the current ruler ...

Science Daily Online

Search This Blog