Latest Telomere Stories

Researchers at The Wistar Institute have defined a key target of an evolutionarily conserved protein that regulates the process of aging. The study, published June 11 in Nature, provides fundamental knowledge about key mechanisms of aging that could point toward new anti-aging strategies and cancer therapies.Scientists have long known that a class of proteins called sirtuins promotes fitness and longevity in most organisms ranging from single-celled yeast to mammals. At the cellular level,...

HOUSTON, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- SpectraCell Laboratories, the nation's leading nutritional testing laboratory, now offers the ONLY commercially available telomere analysis in the United States. Telomere testing is an innovative cellular aging test that measures a person's biological age in comparison to their chronological age. Telomeres are sections of DNA at the end of each chromosome that cap genetic material and serve as protective buffers that keep the ends of chromosomes from...

 At the ends of chromosome are special pieces of DNA called telomeres. Think of it as the little tip that caps off a shoelace. The telomeres send signals to the cells to let them know it's the end point, not a break that should be repaired.Over time, as cells reproduce, the telomeres become shorter and eventually no longer do their job. The cells then have a higher risk of mutating into cancer.But, a new study finds, if the telomere becomes dysfunctional at any point "“ regardless of...

Astral Fruit, a new health supplements product, helps slow and repair some of the natural telomere DNA shortening that happens as we age MIAMI, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- RevGenetics announces the update and release of its latest science-based telomere health supplements, Astral Fruit. To understand what and how Astral Fruit works we can look at a recent study entitled: "Proteins induced by telomere dysfunction and DNA damage represent biomarkers of human aging and disease."* The August 2008...

Vitamin D Deficiency Particularly Concerning in Older Americans WASHINGTON, May 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the Kronos Longevity Research Institute (KLRI) released its third annual report on top longevity research findings over the last year. Link to the report here: http://www.kronosinstitute.org/publications/reports/sos_2009.cfm Director S. Mitchell Harman, Ph.D. was joined by Carey Gleason, Ph.D., Associate Scientist/Geriatric Neuropsychologist from the University of...

Double-stranded DNA breaks are the key to Trypanosoma brucei's getaway planThe parasite Trypanosoma brucei, which causes African sleeping sickness, is like a thief donning a disguise. Every time the host's immune cells get close to destroying the parasite, it escapes detection by rearranging its DNA and changing its appearance. Now, in research to appear in the advance online April 15 issue of Nature, two laboratories at Rockefeller University have joined forces to reveal how the parasite...

U.S. researchers suggest low perceived stress and healthy weight may help lengthen women's lives. Two studies -- both published in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention and conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences -- examined 647 women enrolled in the long-term Sister Study of 50,000 women ages 34-74 who had sisters with breast cancer. Both studies looked at telomeres -- DNA sequences that buffer chromosomes against the loss of genes...

In contrast to women, men are fertile throughout life, but research at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has now shown that a fertilising sperm can get help from the egg to rejuvenate. The result is an important step towards future stem cell therapy.The risk of chromosomal abnormalities in the foetus is highly correlated to the age of the mother, but is nearly independent of the age of the father. One possible explanation is that egg cells have a unique ability to...

Women who maintain a healthy weight and who have lower perceived stress may be less likely to have chromosome changes associated with aging than obese and stressed women, according to a pilot study that was part of the Sister Study. The long-term Sister Study is looking at the environmental and genetic characteristics of women whose sister had breast cancer to identify factors associated with developing breast cancer. This early pilot used baseline questionnaires and samples provided by...

Last week, a presidential limousine shuttled Barack Obama to the most important job in his life. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now identified a protein that does much the same for the telomerase enzyme "” ferrying the critically important clump of proteins around to repair the ends of chromosomes that are lost during normal replication. Without such ongoing maintenance, stem cells would soon cease dividing and embryos would fail to develop."This is the...