Cellular aging: A basic paradox elucidated
The team of Francis Rodier (a professor at the Universite du Montreal) and his cancer research colleagues published a study in Nucleic Acids Research that showed for the first-time that cellular senescence is not caused solely by telomere elongation but by irreversible DNA damage.
This discovery is contrary to the most popular scientific model in the past 15 years. It is based on the principle that telomeres (caps located at the end of chromosomes) erodes with every cell division. They tell the cell when they become too short to stop dividing. This prevents damage to DNA. The cell becomes dormant and enters senescence.
In order for this model to work, it is necessary to inactivate a single Telomere. Rodier’s lab and others had observed that multiple dysfunctional telomeres are necessary.
Source:
https://phys.org/news/2021-11-cellular-aging-basic-paradox-elucidated.html
