Source: Children's Hospital Boston
Date: February 17, 2010
Summary:
Boston, Mass. -- In a study that ties stem cell research together with research on aging and cancer, investigators at Children's Hospital Boston have used genetic reprogramming to create cells from patients with a rare premature-aging disorder that are able to rebuild their telomeres--the tips of chromosomes that must be maintained to prevent a cell from "aging" and enabling it to divide and make copies of itself.
Publishing in Nature (Advance Online) on February 17, researchers in the laboratory of George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, Director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Children's, report successfully reactivating the cellular enzyme telomerase, which maintains the telomeres, in patients with dyskeratosis congenita. In this rare genetic disorder, genetic mutations cause telomerase to be defective, leaving the chromosomes without protection from damage and unable to compensate for the natural shortening of telomeres that occurs when a cell divides. As a result, a patient's cells "age" more quickly, leading to bone-marrow failure (an inability to make enough blood cells), degradation of multiple tissues, premature aging-like symptoms and a much-shortened lifespan.
USA Today and Technology Review carried news stories on this news release today.
