Lack of telomere shortening with age in mouse resting zone chondrocytes.
OBJECTIVE
Telomeres are hexameric repeat sequences that flank eukaryotic chromosomes. The telomere hypothesis of cellular aging proposes that replication of normal somatic cells leads to progressive telomere shortening which induces replicative senescence. Previous studies suggest that growth plate chondrocytes have a finite proliferative capacity in vivo. We therefore hypothesized that telomere shortening in resting zone chondrocytes leads to replicative senescence.


METHODS
To test this hypothesis we compared the telomere restriction fragment (TRF) length of Mus casteneus at 1, 4, 8, and 56 weeks of age.


CONCLUSIONS
We found that TRF length did not diminish measurably with age, suggesting that telomere shortening in resting zone chondrocytes is not the mechanism that limits proliferation of growth plate chondrocytes in vivo.
Nwosu
Benjamin U
BU
Developmental Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. nwosub@ummhc.org
Nilsson
Ola
O
Mitchum
Robert D
RD
Coco
Marilena
M
Barnes
Kevin M
KM
Baron
Jeffrey
J
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D019902:Chondrocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D006132:Growth Plate / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D016615:Telomere / Q000502:physiology*