title: Lack of telomere shortening with age in mouse resting zone chondrocytes.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. nwosub@ummhc.org
authors.forename: Benjamin U
authors.initials: BU
authors.lastname: Nwosu
authors.forename: Ola
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Mitchum
authors.forename: Marilena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coco
authors.forename: Kevin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baron
mesh_terms: 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*