Can these eyes lie? Western fatty chips not only look for cuddling, but also have a very special talent that hides deep in their cells. As researchers around Marina Blanco from the Duke Lemur Center found out, the dwarfs domestic in Madagascar can turn back the clock of their cell age during their hibernation that lasts up to seven months.
This is thanks to the so-called telomeres, tiny DNA caps at the ends of the chromosomes. They work like the plastic tips at the ends of laces that prevent them from fraying. With each cell division, small parts of the telomeres are lost, so that they get shorter with increasing age. However, the fatty tail makis can reverse this process during their extensive hibernation, so that the telomeres extend themselves instead of shortening. In this way, the hamster -sized dwarf lenses can effectively increase the number of their cell divisions and thus breathe new life into their cells in a stressful time, as Blanco explains.
However, the telomerus extension is not permanent. Two weeks after the animals kept in captivity, the researchers found that the Lemur telomeres had the length of hibernation again. However, Blanco and her colleagues suspect that despite its transience, the “Telomer-Trick” increases the life expectancy of the fatty tail makis. The dwarfsticks live proud 30 years. Galagos, similarly large primates that do not hibernate, do not even reach half of this lifetime.
The researchers do not yet know how exactly western fatty -tailed makis extend their telomeres. Once you have revealed the secret, you could perhaps develop new ways based on its age -related diseases in humans or treat them without increasing the risk of uncontrolled cell division that can lead to cancer.