Alexandra Bruther: Extend the youth of the cage

Alexandra Bruther Wikimedia Commons Monocyte Computer Model Monocyte Model

A healthy lifestyle slows down the aging of cells at the molecular level. These are the results of a study conducted by scientists from San Francisco, in which 239 women took part.

All participants in the experiment did not have serious diseases, did not smoke and were at the age after menopause. A healthy lifestyle, according to researchers, included three components: healthy sleep in sufficient quantities, healthy nutrition and physical activity. Participants in the experiment were diaries in which they described their lifestyle and strong stress. At the beginning and at the end of the experiment, they climbed blood samples.

In the blood samples, scientists were mainly interested in the cells of the immune system, because unlike erythrocyte oxygen, they have nuclei and a complete set of chromosomes. At the ends of the chromosomes there are special formations - telomeres .

It so happened that telomeres serve as a good indicator of the aging of the cell. When the cell is divided, it must double its entire DNA, copying it. For this, a special enzyme-DNA polymerase is associated with the end of the DNA molecule and moves along it, copying. True, DNA polymerase cannot attach to the very end of the chromosome, so it begins its path, slightly retreating from the edge. As a result, the new chromosome comes out a little shorter than the previous one. So that important information is not lost, at the ends of the chromosome and there are telomeres that gradually shorten over time and with each cell division.

This explains the existence of the limit of the hyflik - when the length of the telomere becomes critically short, the cells cease to share. This limit is about 50 divisions. If the cell still continues to share when the telomeres are very short, the structure of the chromosomes becomes unstable and chromosomal aberration occurs. Chromosomes glue each other, incorrectly diverge into subsidiary cells during division, etc. In particular, this can happen to the cells that have become cancer. It is also known that severe stress accelerates the shortening of telomeres.

In the human body there is one group of cells, which is virtually immortal, and such cells should share “forever” - these are the cells of the reproductive line. In the human body, sex cells ripen, one of them is involved in fertilization, is divided, a new organism is obtained from it, in which their germ cells ripen and so on. In such cells, the telomerase enzyme is active - it consists of proteins and a small RNA sequence, which serves as a matrix, on the basis of which protein can synthesize the chromosome of new telomeres. Telomerase is often active in tumor cells, and scientists add it to cells, from which they want to get an eternal resident laboratory culture. For the study of all these processes in 2009, Elizabeth Blackburn , Carol Greyer and Jack Shostaku was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

The authors of the study measured the length of telomere in the cells of the immune system in subjects at the beginning of the experiment and a year later. It turned out that severe stress really contributed to shortening telomeres, however, women who have a healthier lifestyle have, shortening in recounting one stressful event than women who lead a less healthy lifestyle. That is, it seems that a healthy lifestyle, although it is unable to reduce the number of stresses, helps to transfer them easier, without much harm to the body. Since we are talking about the length of the telomeres, that is, about the ability to divide the cells of the immune system, it can be assumed that, first of all, it proves a decrease in the negative impact of immunity stresses.

The results of the study are published in Nature magazine.

See also: Maxim Rousseau Telomerase: friend and enemy Sergey Nechaev Topology and the mystery of laying DNA DNA Telomer pronounce life expectancy and the likelihood of serious diseases Nikolai Dyatlov STARITHS FOR THE BORRITES