In article <3732ed1e.1776878 at news.soltec.net>, Bob at home.net says...
>>On 5 May 1999 20:20:25 GMT, excelife at earthlink.net (Thomas Mahoney)
>wrote:
>>>>In addition, the scientists found that the changes in telomere length
>>>were unrelated to the activity of the enzyme telomerase, which can
>>>influence telomere shortening. They reported that levels of the enzyme
>>>varied and were in general low among the children. "This suggested to
>>>us that the changes in telomere length may indeed reflect the number
>>>of cell divisions that the cells had undergone," said Zeichner.
>>Can someone explains this paragraph to me? At first glance, it seems
>to me that, if the levels of telomerase were low in children, then
>their telomeres should shorten faster, and that this study is saying
>their telomeres do shorten faster. So why are the two unrelated?
>
I believe they were just saying that the enzyme telomerase wasn't acting to
maintain the telomeres in these cells and the telomere shortening noted was
thus not affected.
Had significant telomerase activity been observed, the telomeres may not have
shortened at all.
Thomas Mahoney, Pres.
Lifeline Laboratories, Inc.
http://home.earthlink.net/~excelife/index.html
