Aakancha Shaw, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
The environment that an embryo encounters during its developing stage matters a lot because it has major consequences on the later-life of an individual.
Telomeres are the protective ends of chromosomes and their length is indicative of the “biological age” of an individual. Telomeres have a tendency to shorten with age which is a sign of aging. However, progressive shortening of telomeres is indicative of mortality risks, apoptosis or senescence.
A study funded by the Academy of Finland manipulated the prenatal exposure to maternal thyroid hormones in an avian model (telomere biology of humans is similar to that of birds). The results were quite surprising.
The chicks exhibited longer telomeres. Also, the chicks hatching from thyroid hormone injected eggs were found to be 4 years younger at birth than the other ordinary chicks hacking from normal eggs.
Hence, it was established that an increased prenatal exposure to maternal thyroid hormones could increase the length of telomeres and have beneficial effects on the “biological age” at birth.
Also read:Building a chemical blueprint for human blood
SOURCE:
Stier, Antoine; Hsu, Bin-Yan; Marciau, Coline; Doligez, Blandine; Gustafsson, Lars; Bize, Pierre; et al. (2020): Supplementary material from “Born to be young? Prenatal thyroid hormones increase early-life telomere length in wild collared flycatchers”. The Royal Society. Collection. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5189331.v1
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