Telomerase reactivation reverses tissue degeneration in aged telomerase-deficient mice.

ABSTRACT: An ageing world population has fuelled interest in regenerative remedies that may stem declining organ function and maintain fitness. Unanswered is whether elimination of intrinsic instigators driving age-associated degeneration can reverse, as opposed to simply arrest, various afflictions of the aged. Such instigators include progressively damaged genomes. Telomerase-deficient mice have served as a model system to study the adverse cellular and organismal consequences of wide-spread endogenous DNA damage signalling activation in vivo. Telomere loss and uncapping provokes progressive tissue atrophy, stem cell depletion, organ system failure and impaired tissue injury responses. Here, we sought to determine whether entrenched multi-system degeneration in adult mice with severe telomere dysf

SUBMITTER: Jaskelioff M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3057569 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature