Now, scientists can determine the life expectancy of a particular person, by analyzing its DNA. An international research team has learned to interpret the chemical reactions that occur in the body throughout his life. In other words, were found a kind of " biological clock "that can help predict the life expectancy of the individual. Opening perhaps a little disturbing, will help expand our knowledge of longevity.
The biological clock
It seems that age - it's not just the number of years lived. Age, confirmed the birth certificate is not as important as the age specified in the DNA. To calculate the human biological clock, investigators compared the actual age of the volunteers that reflect chemical changes in the DNA. A process known as methylation, DNA is physically not change, but the effect on the expression of certain genes.
As the newspaper writes Science Blog, people whose biological age turned out to be larger than their actual age are likely to die earlier than those who are the same age two. This process was repeated in four separate studies. The data were obtained by studying 5,000 elderly people over 14 years.
Identical results of four studies have shown a link between the biological clock and death from all causes - Edinburgh University researchers reported.
The results have not ceased to appear believable even after taking into account risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, and heart function.
What do we know about longevity
In 2005, at the age of 115 years, died at the time the oldest inhabitant of the planet Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper. onated his body to science. Analysis of her blood showed that the human lifespan is limited by the ability of stem cells to self-renew. Scientists were surprised that a woman's body remained in the white blood cells were only two stem cells. This gave reason to assume that all or nearly all blood stem cells with which she was born, died. Then it turned out that the telomeres in her white blood cells is very old - their length was too short. Telomeres are the end portions of chromosomes that directly affect the longevity of cells. Recently, scientists from Stanford declared safe mode of telomere elongation .
Now that scientists know exactly what causes a natural death, they may look for different ways to turn back the aging process. It has been suggested that the enrichment of blood stem cells may increase the natural life span.
Other relatively recent study of life expectancy showed that allele carrier which is every fifth person to be responsible for the area of the brain associated with decision-making. The same genetic variation is associated with longevity .