Rodney Reid wrote:
>> Hi spring,
>> Would telomerase have any effect on non-dividing cells, which (I'm
> assuming C.elegans cells at adulthood are non-dividing)? I would think
> that telomerase would also have no impact on fruit flys either.
>>
As far as I understand, all human cells with nuclei come from precursor cells which do indeed
divide, with a few exceptions such as cells in the nervous system. This must be true even for
the adult human, otherwise wounds would not heal. I see no reason why adult C. Elegans would not
have cells which undergo division. CE, along with other organisms, probably slow down the rate
of cell division (under normal circumstances) with age. I can't remember now if someone found
a correlation of telomere length with age in humans. Perhaps it was only the number of
divisions till the Hayflick limit in vitro that correlates with age(?)Please let me know if I'm
wrong.
