title: Growth, telomere dynamics and successful and unsuccessful human aging.
abstract: This paper links mass trajectories with telomere dynamics to construct theoretical models of successful and unsuccessful aging in human beings. It couples parameters of telomere length in somatic cells, as expressed by the terminal restriction fragment (TRF), at birth and the rate of telomere attrition thereafter with nonlinear models of somatic growth to predict the probability of surviving disease free, based on the assumption that telomere length in replicating somatic cells is a surrogate indicator of aging determinants in humans. The models capture aspects of individual variation in successful and unsuccessful aging and the long-term consequences of rapid growth early in life.
authors.affiliation: Room F-464, Hypertension Research Center, The Cardiovascular Research Institute, New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 185 South Orange Ave., Newark, NJ 07103-2714, USA. avivab@umdnj.edu
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aviv
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mangel
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D006128:Growth / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D016615:Telomere / Q000502:physiology*