A topic of great interest to users, thanks to the media, is whether or not biological age can be determined using telomere data.
Biological age is a number that tells us whether our internal biology matches our physical age. For example, I may have been alive for 48 years, but I may have an average telomere length equal to that of 42 years. The theory says that this means that I am, biologically, 42 years old.
Telomere data has many applications in health and wellness and is extremely useful. By measuring telomere length, we can determine a person's biological age, their regenerative capacity, and ultimately their biological health.
Biosalud Day Hospital offers Telomere Analysis, which is a blood test to analyze telomere length.
Firstly, to find out to what extent my lifestyle is adequate or whether I should make any changes that my doctor will recommend, so that I can live longer and better.
Secondly , to confirm whether the changes I have made to my lifestyle, diet, nutritional supplements, and the treatment prescribed by my doctor are helping to slow down this shortening. In this case, an annual analysis is performed.
Thirdly, to assess my biological quality so that my doctor can personalize the most appropriate regenerative medicine treatment for my joints or any other part of my body.
According to scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine, there is a procedure that can increase the length of telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes linked to aging and disease.
The procedure, which involves the use of a modified type of RNA, ribonucleic acid, one of the three main macromolecules essential to all forms of life, will improve researchers' ability to generate large numbers of cells for study or drug development, scientists say. Skin cells with telomeres lengthened by the procedure were able to divide up to 40 times more than untreated cells. The research may point to new ways to treat diseases caused by shortened telomeres.
Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of DNA strands called chromosomes, which house our genomes. In young humans, telomeres are approximately 8,000-10,000 nucleotides in length. However, they shorten with each cell division, and when they reach a critical length, the cell stops dividing and dies. This internal "clock" makes it difficult to keep most cells growing in a laboratory for more than a few cell doublings.
"We have found a way to lengthen human telomeres by up to 1,000 nucleotides, turning back the internal clock in these cells by the equivalent of many years of human life," said Helen Blau, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford and director of the university's Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology. "This greatly increases the number of cells available for studies such as drug testing or disease modeling."
A paper describing this research was published in January 2015 in the FASEB Journal. Blau, Donald E., and Delia B. Baxter are the lead authors. Postdoctoral researcher John Ramunas, PhD, of Stanford, shares lead authorship with Eduard Yakubov, PhD, of the Houston Methodist Research Institute.
The researchers used modified messenger RNA to extend telomeres. RNA carries instructions from genes in DNA to the cell's protein production factories. The RNA used in this experiment contained the coding sequence for TERT, the active component of a natural enzyme called telomerase. Telomerase is expressed by stem cells, including those that give rise to sperm and egg cells, to ensure that the telomeres of these cells remain in top-notch shape for the next generation. However, most other cell types express very low levels of telomerase.
The newly developed technique has an important advantage over other potential methods: it is temporary. The modified RNA is designed to reduce the cell's immune response to the treatment and allow the TERT coding message to stick around a little longer than an unmodified message would. But it dissipates and disappears within about 48 hours. After that time, the newly lengthened telomeres begin to progressively shorten again with each cell division.
Biologically, this means that the treated cells do not continue to divide indefinitely, which would make them too dangerous to use as a potential therapy in humans due to the risk of cancer.
This new approach paves the way for the prevention or treatment of diseases associated with aging.
An addition of 1,000 nucleotides represents an increase of more than 10 percent in telomere length. These cells divided many times more in the culture dish than untreated cells: about 28 times more for skin cells, and approximately three times more for muscle cells.
Research such as this demonstrates the importance of telomeres. At Biosalud, we would like to remind you of our recommendations for lengthening telomeres and slow down aging.
