Accelerated Telomere Shortening in Acromegaly; IGF-I Induces Telomere Shortening and Cellular Senescence

Accelerated Telomere Shortening in Acromegaly; IGF-I Induces Telomere Shortening and Cellular Senescence

OBJECTIVE Patients with acromegaly exhibit reduced life expectancy and increased prevalence of age-related diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. However, the underlying mechanism has not been fully elucidated. Telomere shortening is reportedly associated with reduced life expectancy and increased prevalence of these age-related diseases. METHODS We measured tel...

Deregulated telomere transcription causes replication-dependent telomere shortening and promotes cellular senescence

Telomeres are transcribed into non-coding TElomeric Repeat containing RNAs (TERRA). We have employed a transcriptionally inducible telomere to investigate how telomere transcription affects telomere function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We report that telomere shortening resulting from high levels of telomere transcription stems from a DNA replication-dependent loss of telomere tracts, which ca...

Telomere Shortening in Renal Cell Carcinoma I

The ends of human chromosomes consist of a specialized structure, the telomere, composed of repeats of TFAGGG making up a total of 5-15 kilobase pairs, depending on age and proliferative activity of the tissue. The major function of telomeres is to provide stability to chromosomes and protect underlying unique coding sequences from degradation. There is a loss of telomeric sequences following e...

Telomere Shortening Mechanisms

Rapid telomere shortening in children.

Telomere shortening may reflect the total number of divisions experienced by a somatic cell and is associated with replicative senescence. We found that the average rate of telomere shortening in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained longitudinally from nine different infants during the first 3 years of life (270 bp per year) is more than fourfold higher than in adults and does no...