Telomerase could extend our lives?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telomerase

Just for those who don't know what it is.


So, do you think this could be used to extend lives? Should we?
what about the risk of cancer?
Recently learned of this.

Doesn't this happen in meiosis of sperm cells all the time though?

You could be interested in Mechanisms of aging (in a blog from an expert in the field).

Telomerase seems to be one of the key parts to prolong life. However there are other factors, as for example, the removal of degenerated cells.

High telomerase activity should protect from mutations, and hence, from developing cancer. The effect in already mutant cells is probably very complicated.

And beside there is a utility in death. When we die we make room for something new and possibly better. In addition to which if you could live forever, at some point you would be bored out of your mind. Life is good, but enough is enough.

ruveyn

actually, preserving a cell line can result in more mutations because there is more time for them to accrue from radiation and other environmental factors

and the meiosis of sperm cells is actually the end of a cell line since it results in cells with only half the chromosomes. And I recently read about a study showing a correlation between higher number of mutations in sperm cells and the age of the donor.

How would it be administered?

I think we'd need to know a bit more about cell's internal instructions such as when they.....for the lack of a better word 'know' when dead cells have been replenished (ie. not overgrowth) or that our efforts to insert it don't cause transcoding problems, uneven replacement of body tissue, etc..

This could be useful for countries with shrinking populations. If people liver longer, healthier lives the replacement rate doesn't need to be so high.

No, I've never been under so much duress at to watch.

Quite right, puke-r-oni. I've never seen it as well, but, it was a poor attempt at humour I guess.

Well, if it can extend my life, then I don't want it.