Telomeres

Telo­me­res are the pro­tec­ti­ve caps at the ends of chro­mo­so­mes. They con­sist of repea­ting DNA sequen­ces and pre­vent gene­tic infor­ma­ti­on from being lost during cell divi­si­on or chro­mo­so­mes from sti­cking tog­e­ther. They beco­me slight­ly shorter with each division.

Appli­ca­ti­on

Once telo­me­res reach a cri­ti­cal length, the cell stops divi­ding and enters sene­s­cence. The enzy­me telo­me­ra­se can leng­then telo­me­res but is bare­ly acti­ve in most body cells. Chro­nic stress, smo­king and oxi­da­tive stress are asso­cia­ted with fas­ter shor­tening. In the skin, short telo­me­res con­tri­bu­te to a decli­ning capa­ci­ty to regenerate.

Good to know

Telo­me­re length is some­ti­mes offe­red as a mar­ker of bio­lo­gi­cal age, but it varies con­sider­a­b­ly bet­ween indi­vi­du­als and mea­su­re­ment methods. Arti­fi­ci­al­ly acti­vat­ing telo­me­ra­se is not wit­hout con­cerns, as can­cer cells also use this mecha­nism. Pro­ducts clai­ming to leng­then telo­me­res should be view­ed critically.