Telomere is the end of the chromosome "biological protective cap", to avoid damage to the chromosome, its role is very like to avoid wear the end of the plastic protective cap. With human age, telomeres will become shorter and shorter, leading to DNA damage, thereby increasing the incidence of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and heart disease and other diseases of the elderly.
Telomere shorter than the average length, will indicate signs of unhealthy and early death. At present, the United States Northwestern
University and Harvard University scientists pointed out that a unique model to change telomere length can predict the real diagnosis of cancer before.
They say it is a vital indicator that cancer has been diagnosed for a 3-4 year before a stable period, after which telomeres will shorten the length quickly. This is the first report of the human body to form cancer cells a few years ago telomeres change trip.
The model shows that when cancer accurately threatens the aging process of human cells, cancer patients in vivo telomeres look aging for 15 years. At the same time, this model can also be used as a biological indicator, followed by blood tests, detection of human suffering from the disease.
The researchers stressed that it is difficult to understand how telomeres affect the formation of cancer cells in the body, which is due to inconsistencies. Some studies have found that telomeres are shorter, and some studies have found that telomeres are long, and some studies have shown that there is no correlation between them. The latest study was published in the recently published Journal of Electronic Biomedical Medicine.
In this study, scientists spent 13 years on the 800 test subjects for a variety of telomere test, of which 135 people eventually diagnosed different types of cancer, including: prostate cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer, blood cancer.
At first scientists found that the formation of cancer cells in the body telomere aging faster, compared to the population of telomeres than those in the body did not form cancer cells in the telomeres aging 15 years. After the scientists found that this accelerated aging process in the diagnosis of cancer will stop before 3-4 years, there is a stable period.
"Understanding the growth of telomeres means that it can be used as a biomarker for predicting cancer,"