Mitochondria And Telomerase

clipped from www.fightaging.org So, poorly functioning mitochondria lead to telomere shortening, and telomerase somehow improves mitochondrial function to prevent that shortening. This is in place of the more expected path of undoing ongoing telomere shortening by adding extra repeat sequences to the end of the telomeres - that being the better understood function of telomerase. Damaged mitochondria are a fundamental root cause of age-related degeneration far above and beyond the matter of telomeres. If telomerase acts to improve the state of mitochondria, this might explain why telomere length correlates so well with general measures of health in the old. It might even be the case that, setting aside cancer for one moment, telomere length really isn't that important in comparison to your mitochondrial health. This all cries out for more research - the prospect of reducing two thorny problems down to one