Chromosomes aged 10 years by stress

Chromosomes aged 10 years by stress


22:00 29 November 04

NewScientist.com news service

Psychological stress may be enough to age a woman’s chromosomes by 10 years, a new study suggests.

The link between stress, ageing and health at the cellular level is unclear, but a team led by Elissa Epel of the University of California at San Francisco, US, has now looked at the effect of stress on the cell.

A piece of DNA called a telomere caps the ends of each chromosome, protecting those ends and promoting genetic stability. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres shorten so that daughter cells have slightly shorter telomeres than their parents.

But in young people, an enzyme called telomerase corrects the process, regenerating the ends. However, in older people the telomeres shorten significantly and eventually their replication stops altogether...cont'd


http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996732