Research Paper Volume 9, Issue 4 pp 1130—1142
Telomeres and the natural lifespan limit in humans
- 1 Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Biodemography, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense 5000, Denmark
- 2 Epidemiology Unit, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Jerusalem 91120, Israel
- 3 Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- 4 Department of Clinical Genetics, Odense University Hospital, Odense 5220, Denmark
- 5 Danish Aging Research Center, University of Southern Denmark, Odense 5000, Denmark
- 6 The Danish Twin Registry, University of Southern Denmark, Odense 5220, Denmark
- 7 Department of Public Health, Environmental Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, 5000 Odense C, Denmark
- 8 Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark and Odense Patient Data Explorative Network (OPEN), Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark
- 9 Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, UK
- 10 NIHI Biomedical Research Center at Guy’s and St Thomas Foundation Trust, London SE1 9RT, UK
- 11 Center of Human Development and Aging, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA
- 12 Department of Geriatrics, University Hospital of Nancy, F54500, France
- 13 INSERM, U1116, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, F54500, France
- 14 Université de Lorraine, Nancy, F54000, France
- 15 Population Sciences Branch of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD and the Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA 01702, USA
- 16 Cardiovascular Genetics Division, Department of Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA
- 17 Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- 18 Center for Cardiovascular Health, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 07118, USA
- 19 Department of Medical, Surgery, Neurologic, Metabolic and Aging Science, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvtelli” 80138 Naples, Italy
- 20 Clinical Genetics Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20890, USA
- 21 Biodemography of Aging Research Unit, Social Science Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
Received: January 10, 2016 Accepted: March 23, 2017 Published: April 6, 2017
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101216How to Cite
Abstract
An ongoing debate in demography has focused on whether the human lifespan has a maximal natural limit. Taking a mechanistic perspective, and knowing that short telomeres are associated with diminished longevity, we examined whether telomere length dynamics during adult life could set a maximal natural lifespan limit. We define leukocyte telomere length of 5 kb as the ‘telomeric brink’, which denotes a high risk of imminent death. We show that a subset of adults may reach the telomeric brink within the current life expectancy and more so for a 100-year life expectancy. Thus, secular trends in life expectancy should confront a biological limit due to crossing the telomeric brink.