Journal
BLOOD
Volume 139, Issue 6, Pages 813-821Publisher
AMER SOC HEMATOLOGY
DOI: 10.1182/blood.2021014299
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Terry Fox Research Institute [1074]
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research [PJT-159787]
- Canadian Foundation for Innovation [40044]
- Government of British Columbia
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This article summarizes the role of telomeres in human health and disease and discusses the antagonistic role of telomere loss in aging and cancer. It proposes the Telomere Erosion in Disposable Soma theory.
The role of telomeres in human health and disease is yet to be fully understood. The limitations of mouse models for the study of human telomere biology and difficulties in accurately measuring the length of telomere repeats in chromosomes and cells have diverted attention from many important and relevant observations. The goal of this perspective is to summarize some of these observations and to discuss the antagonistic role of telomere loss in aging and cancer in the context of developmental biology, cell turnover, and evolution. It is proposed that both damage to DNA and replicative loss of telomeric DNA contribute to aging in humans, with the differences in leukocyte telomere length between humans being linked to the risk of developing specific diseases. These ideas are captured in the Telomere Erosion in Disposable Soma theory of aging proposed herein.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available