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Telomere Shortening After Induced Premature Senescence by Ionizing Radiation

Westerberg, Leo (2020) MOBK01 20192
Degree Projects in Molecular Biology
Popular Abstract
Induced Cell Aging by Radiation

Aging is a natural phenomenon that affects almost all living organisms and brings with it an array of disease. In humans, aging is in part due to shortening of one’s telomeres. Telomeres are sequences of DNA at the end of our chromosomes that do not code for any genetic information. Thus, they can serve as protection, non-coding DNA taking damage that would otherwise affect vital genes. However, throughout a person’s life their telomeres become shorter until they can no longer protect the chromosomes. This causes cells to stop dividing, going into a state called senescence. With a low number of new cells being produced an older person is therefor much more susceptible to disease and the healing processes... (More)
Induced Cell Aging by Radiation

Aging is a natural phenomenon that affects almost all living organisms and brings with it an array of disease. In humans, aging is in part due to shortening of one’s telomeres. Telomeres are sequences of DNA at the end of our chromosomes that do not code for any genetic information. Thus, they can serve as protection, non-coding DNA taking damage that would otherwise affect vital genes. However, throughout a person’s life their telomeres become shorter until they can no longer protect the chromosomes. This causes cells to stop dividing, going into a state called senescence. With a low number of new cells being produced an older person is therefor much more susceptible to disease and the healing processes in the body slows down which eventually leads to death. My objective was to find out if telomere length could be affected by induced DNA damages by irradiating cells and measuring and comparing telomere length to non-irradiated cells.


It is already known that irradiation causes cells to prematurely enter senescence. The graph shows the difference in cell growth between irradiated and non-irradiated cells as well as telomere shortening over time. However, it is yet unknown how telomere length is affected by radiation (dotted line)

Methods and Results
The number of senescent cells were determined for different cell ages for both irradiated and non-irradiated cells. By staining senescent cells green they are easy to count.
Telomere length was determined by measuring amount of telomeric DNA in a set number of cells, where a higher amount of telomeric DNA equaled longer telomeres.
Lastly, cell telomeres and DNA repair machinery were stained to determine if telomeres had been damaged by the radiation.

The results showed that, as previously know, irradiated cells became prematurely senescent.
However, a slight non-significant decrease in length was visible in irradiated cells but further studies are needed to evaluate this association. Furthermore, the telomere length did not statistically show any difference between irradiated and non-irradiated cells. Our understanding of telomeres and the effect radiation has on them is not only important for slowing down aging, thus preventing age related disease, but could also help us prevent and treat radiation sickness.


Examensarbete för kandidatexamen i Molekylär Biologi 15 hp 2019
The Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute (MBW), Stockholm
University

Supervisors: Siamak Haghdoost & Traimate Sangsuwan
The Department of Molecular Biosciences (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Westerberg, Leo
supervisor
organization
course
MOBK01 20192
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
9006868
date added to LUP
2020-03-19 11:48:45
date last changed
2020-03-19 11:48:45
@misc{9006868,
  author       = {{Westerberg, Leo}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Telomere Shortening After Induced Premature Senescence by Ionizing Radiation}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}