How & Why We Age

Question 0

Female UK life expectancy

Answer 0

82

Question 1

Male life expectancy in UK

Answer 1

78

Question 2

Low birth weight associations

Answer 2

Red grip strength 50 years later

Inc risk of diabetes

Inc mortality- cardiovascular

Question 3

Hayflick phenomenon

Answer 3

Cultured human fibroblasts can only undergo a limited number of population doublings before arrest of cellular replication occurs

Question 4

Senescent cell

Answer 4

Cell that has list the ability to divide
Fundamental feature of cells
Studied in culture
Cells count cell divisions, not time
Senescent cells can remain viable, just can't divide anymore

Question 5

Telomeres

Answer 5

Ends of chromosomes
Shorten with each cell cycle- the most distal nucleotides in lagging strands …
Non coding repeats of TTA GGG

Question 6

Progeria patients have ….. Telomeres

Answer 6

Shorter

Question 7

Physiological significance of replicative senescence

Answer 7

Tumour suppressing mechanism

Basis for physiological ageing

Question 8

Fibroblasts from patients with Werners syndrome achieve ….. Population doublings

Answer 8

Fewer

‘Adult progeria’

Question 9

Conditions that accelerate the ageing process

Answer 9

Progeria

Werner’s syndrome

Question 10

Conditions that retard the ageing process

Answer 10

Experimentally (eg caloric restriction in mice)

Spontaneous (eg natural mutations)

Question 11

Name the non coding repeat at the end of telomeres

Answer 11

TTA GGG

Question 12

Theories of ageing

Answer 12

Intrinsic cellular ageing theory
Free radical theory
Protein error theory
Somatic DNA mutation theory

Question 13

Causes of somatic damage

Answer 13

Endogenous: body heat, free radicals

Exogenous: radiation, physical damage

Question 14

Ageing is caused primarily by …..

Answer 14

Damage