Mice with hyper-long telomeres show less metabolic aging and longer lifespans

Abstract

Short telomeres trigger age-related pathologies and shorter lifespans in mice and humans. In the past, we generated mouse embryonic (ES) cells with longer telomeres than normal (hyper-long telomeres) in the absence of genetic manipulations, which contributed to all mouse tissues. To address whether hyper-long telomeres have deleterious effects, we generated mice in which 100% of their cells are derived from hyper-long telomere ES cells. We observe that these mice have longer telomeres and less DNA damage with aging. Hyper-long telomere mice are lean and show low cholesterol and LDL levels, as well as improved glucose and insulin tolerance. Hyper-long telomere mice also have less incidence of cancer and an increased longevity. These findings demonstrate that longer telomeres than normal in a given species are not deleterious but instead, show beneficial effects.

Read full text

Reference:

Muñoz-Lorente MA, Cano-Martin AC, Blasco MA. Mice with hyper-long telomeres show less metabolic aging and longer lifespans. Nat Commun. 2019 Oct 17;10(1):4723. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12664-x. PubMed PMID: 31624261.



Keywords: mice with hyper-long telomeres, metabolic aging, lifespans, cholesterol, #Aging, #Ageing, #Telomeres.

The International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST) maintains up-to-date lists with conferencesgrants and funding opportunitiesjobs and open positions, and journal special issues with relevance for the area of phytochemistry and food chemistry, pharmacology, biotechnology, medicine and pharmacognosy research, and natural product science.

Join for free INPST as a member

INPST social media channels