http://health.discovery.com/news/afp/20030127/reaper.html
DNA May Give Tip As to When You Will Die AFP Jan. 31 � The nubbly tips of your chromosomes may give you a pointer as to when you will die, according to research published on Saturday in The Lancet, the British medical weekly. The tips, called telomeres, protect the ends of the chromosomes � the coiled lengths of DNA that are studded with genes, the chemical recipe for life � rather like the plastic ends on shoelaces. They are gradually worn away every time a cell in the body tissue divides and replicates. The theory, often debated, is that worn-out telomeres cause chromosomes to fuse together, boosting the risk of cell malfunction or uncontrolled cell death and thus giving rise to killer disorders such as cancer and heart disease � ailments that coincidentally are widespread among the elderly. Evidence to link telomeres with age-related disease has at last been found, says a team of US scientists. They measured the telomere lengths taken from 143 people aged between 60 and 97, examining samples taken from blood donated by these individuals between 1982 and 1986. By mid 2002, 101 of the 143 had died. When ranked by telomere length, someone in the top half of the table lived four to five years longer than someone in the bottom half of table. Those with shorter telomeres notably were more than three times likelier to die of heart disease and more than eight times likelier to die from an infectious disease than those with longer telomeres. Lead researcher Richard Cawthon, from the University of Utah at Salt Lake City, says the study is the first to show that telomere length can predict survivability from age-related disease. "It supports the hypothesis that telomere shortening is a fundamental process of ageing, contributing to mortality from multiple age-related diseases." Finding ways of maintaining telomere length could help the cell to survive additional divisions, thus extending a healthy life, he suggests. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
