Many participants in the recent LivingTheCRWay stem cell teleconference have expressed their appreciation for the presentation of the experts from NeoStem. The upcoming teleconference on telomeres, featuring Dr. Jerry Shay, will also be very important in part because of the importance of telomeres to stem cell health.
Short telomeres are associated with many disease states, including atherosclerosis, heart failure, liver cirrhosis, AIDS, and ulcerative colitis. Epidemiological factors that contribute to telomere shortening include: age, gender, smoking, obesity, stress, and socioeconomic status.
All of these are important and support the inclusion of a telomere length assessment in CR Way DNA HACR.
Another important aspect of telomere and telomerase health is their effect on adult stem cells. Critically short telomeres impair the ability of adult stem cells to repair tissues. For example, consider the role telomeres play in repair of heart tissue by stem cells.
Dysfunction of telomerase is associated with the impairment of tissue repair or regeneration in several pathologic conditions, including heart failure and infarction [heart attack]. Under both physiologic and pathophysiologic conditions, telomerase interacts with promyogenic [supportive of generating new muscle cells] nuclear transcription factors (e.g., myocardin: serum response factor) to augment the potency of cardiovascular cells during growth, survival, and differentiation.*
*Biologic function and clinical potential of telomerase and associated proteins in cardiovascular tissue repair and regeneration
Madonna R, De Caterina R, Willerson JT, Geng YJ.
European Heart Journal. 2011 May;32(10):1190-6. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehq450. Epub 2010 Dec 10.
The introduction to the study provides good background for the role that telomeres play in regeneration of the adult heart:
Stem cell growth, quiescence and differentiation
“Stem cells play a key role in both foetal cardiac development and post-injury repair or regeneration in adult cardiac tissue. Cardiac stem cells of intracardiac [within the heart] origin or from extracardiac [outside] sources, such as bone marrow, represent a group of undifferentiated cardiac cells that can give rise to mature cardiac cells while maintaining a strong capacity for self-renewal or proliferation. Increasing evidence indicates that low telomerase activity and telomere shortening are the core components that drive the senescent or apoptotic depletion of tissue stem cell reserves and age-related tissue degeneration, thus impairing the regenerative ability of various organs and tissue, including the heart, after embryonic development. These cellular checkpoint mechanisms have been known for years to contribute to the functional decline of highly proliferative tissue.
However, it is largely unknown how these cellular mechanisms adversely affect more quiescent tissue—such as that in the heart—that is equally ravaged by the ageing or disease processes.”
The truth of this statement changes by the day. New research indicates that stem cell repair is critical for repair of damaged and healthy hearts. You will find more about that in the Stem Cell section available to full members on the LivingTheCRWay left navigation menu.
At the stem cell teleconference on Wednesday, November 6, LivingTheCRWay launched its Stem Cell Replacement Project, which may include assays to evaluate stem cell health. A question we will ask Dr. Shay on Saturday is, given the important role that telomeres play in stem cell rejuvenation, do we need additional assays to evaluate stem cell health?
One thing is certain, we will continue to pursue this subject until we are sure that one day you and anybody else who cares about healthful longevity will not be lying in a critically ill state, helpless because your adult stem cell pool has been depleted. See Is Time Running Out or is Life Just Beginning?
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