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Telomerase Humans

telomerase humans
In humans, can telomerase be introduced postnatally? If so what are the effects?

Telomeres are the end of chromosomes and contain no critical dna information. Telomeres shorten with every cell division. When the telomere becomes so short that the cell cannot divide the cell ages. Telomerase is an enzyme that lengthens telomeres, restores life in a sense. The unfortunate thing is telomerase is only introduced in gamete production, or production of sperm and egg cells. THis is why new borns have fresh, long telomeres and the cycle of life begins again. My question is what happens when telomerase is introduced POSTnatally? Has this been attempted in lab animals? If so what was the result?

Telomerase is produced,postnatally, in certain unfortunate individuals. A series of cell mutations occur and telomerase acts to, continually, restore the cell. This causes an unlimited growth potential. The cells grow and cause all sorts of difficulties (absorb resources that other cells need, intrude on other organs and so on). Telomerase affected cells also have another name – cancer. Cancer is an overgrowth of cells. In fact, there is ongoing research designed to attack cancer by disabling telomerase. Without it, the cancer cells will die off like any other cell.

Hope this helps.

Liz Blackburn 1/3

Telomerase In Humans

[mage lang=”en|es|fr|en” source=”flickr”]telomerase in humans[/mage]
An organelle for telomerase.?

If we made an organelle that makes the human telomerase in quantities equivalent of that of an infant and it was placed in the cytoplasm of an non fertilized egg then was fertilized how much longer would that person live.

The operative word is if, or maybe – when?
Nuclei have been transplanted in the oocytes of animals but failed to develop…
oocytes containing nuclei from nongrowing oocytes could achieve high rates of fertilization, developed to the blastocyst stage in culture, and implanted after embryo transfer, but failed to develop to term. This suggests that modifications in the chromatin during oocyte growth are not required for preimplantation development but are necessary for postimplantation development.
As for fiddling around with the organelles, many have been identified but I can’t find any evidence of them being manipulated.

Nice thought though. Why not start writing science fiction?