Source: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Date: July 28, 2010
Summary:
Researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) have discovered a gene that is essential to keeping stem cells healthy. The gene, hypoxia inducible factor 1, helps keep levels of telomerase constant. Telomerase is an enzyme that is critical to a stem cell’s lifespan, helping to prevent or slow deterioration in the cells. When telomerase is reduced in a stem cell, the stem cell ages faster. The research results are published in July’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
