Lou Pagnucco wrote:
> Shouldn't this paper's hypothesis be easily testable with the
> new cloned sheep/goats which have long telomeres?
>> Wouldn't it be relatively easy to extract some neural or muscle
> cells from them and challenge them (in vitro) with apoptosis
> inducing stimuli? If they proved to be resistant to these insults,
> then we would have some very interesting results, no?
Not particularly interesting, I would say: the existing data already
indicate quite strongly that telomere stabilisation is anti-apoptotic,
so such resistance would be no surprise. That's no reason not to do
the experiment, though -- after all, the result might be the reverse.
I should have mentioned another recent article that is relevant to the
topic. Henle et al, J Biol Chem 274:962-971 showed that telomeric
sequences are preferential targets for iron-mediated DNA damage, and
they hypothesise that this might be used as a sensor for oxidative
damage.
Aubrey de Grey
