BACKGROUND Leukocyte telomere shortening can serve as a biomarker of aging, as telomere length (TL) can decline with age and shortening is positively associated with morbidity and mortality. It is therefore important to identify psychological and behavioral factors linked to accelerated telomere shortening. Stress and poorer metabolic health (greater adiposity, insulin resistance, and cortisol)...

4-Hydroxy-5-hydroxymethyl-[1,3]dioxolan-2,6'-spirane-5',6',7',8'-tetrahydro-indolizine-3'-carbaldehyde (HDTIC)-1 and HDTIC-2 are two isomers extracted from Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch) Bunge Var. mongholicus (Bge) Hsiao. Our previous study had demonstrated that they could extend the lifespan of human fetal lung diploid fibroblasts (2BS). To investigate the mechanisms of the HDTIC-induced del...

Mutations in the template region of a telomerase RNA gene can lead to the corresponding sequence alterations appearing in newly synthesized telomeric repeats. We analyzed a set of mutations in the template region of the telomerase RNA gene (TER1) of the budding yeast Kluyveromyces lactis that were predicted to lead to synthesis of mutant telomeric repeats with disrupted binding of the telomeric...

Reduced telomere length has recently been reported in T lymphocytes of individuals with trisomy 21 Down syndrome (DS) and dementia. Shorter telomeres also have been documented in dyskeratosis congenita, cell senescence, Alzheimer disease, and neoplastic transformation. These observations suggest that similar shortening may occur in people with fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS)...

Telomere length and dynamics are increasingly scrutinized as ultimate determinants of performance, including age-dependent mortality and fecundity. Few studies have investigated longevity in relation to telomere length (TL) in the wild and none has analysed longevity in relation to TL soon after hatching, despite the fact that telomere shortening may mostly occur early in life. We show that TL ...

Dyskeratosis congenita (DC) is a bone marrow failure syndrome associated with telomere dysfunction. The progression and molecular determinants of hematopoietic failure in DC remain poorly understood. Here, we use the directed differentiation of human embryonic stem cells harboring clinically relevant mutations in telomerase to understand the consequences of DC-associated mutations on the primit...