Life Extension

What if you could live forever? What would you do with eternity if you had everlasting youth? How can science keep our cells from degenerating and stave away old age? Questions like these are debated and explored every day by thousands of life extension scientists and enthusiasts.

Perhaps one of the greatest achievements made by life extension researchers thus far has been the idea of the extension of life-span by introduction of telomerase into cells of the human body. Telomerase, a repeating enzyme in the DNA sequence, was first discovered in 1984 by molecular biologist Carol W. Greider. The telomerase enzyme is active on the ends of chromosomes in what are called the telomere regions.

The reason that scientists have found results in extension of life-span by introduction of telomerase is due to the role of telomerase in cell reproduction. Telomerase is responsible for the number of cells that divide in the body. Every time a cell divides, telomerase in that DNA sequence diminishes until the telomerase is depleted in that sequence entirely with cell differentiation.

The younger the being, the more active telomerase is in generating new cells. The time when telomerase is most active is when the embryo is still forming in the womb, in other words, in stem cells. While the extension of life-span by introduction of telomerase seems possible, telomerase studies have been conducted on stem cells in particular for the regenerative possibilities stem cells could provide for the disabled and those with degenerative diseases. In 1998 Extension of Life-Span by Introduction of Telomerase into Normal Human Cells, a scientific research study by Andrea G. Bodnar and nine other scientists, highlighted the role of telomerase in the field of life extension. If the older one gets, the more diminished the telomerase levels in the body and the fewer cell divisions occur, could the extension of life-span by introduction of telomerase be possible? Stem cells and young cells rich with telomerase remain more active and have more regenerative properties than older cells. Extension of Life-Span by Introduction of Telomerase into Normal Human Cells goes further and surmises that the body recognizes the time for "aging" when telomerase levels are extremely depleted. By injecting "clone" copies of telomerase into degenerating cells, the scientists who produced Extension of Life-Span by Introduction of Telomerase into Normal Human Cells found that they could kick-start cells that were waning and ready to cease cell division to start up the cell division sequence again. If cells could continue to resume their youthful activity of division and regeneration when injected with telomerase, couldn't the extension of life-span by introduction of telomerase occur because the telomerase has delayed the body's internal clock's signal to begin aging? The science is still out on telomerase and its role in the extension of life-span, but real promise has been seen in this study. For more information about the aims and study of life extension and of the possibility of the extension of life-span by introduction of telomerase, visit the Life Extension Foundation at lef.org.