What cause us to age old?

Question

Is it a normal cell deterioration such as the cells were our life fuel or is it like the cells need to die for our organism needs to change?

Answer 1

If cells could replace themselves indefinitely we would live forever, (baring accident).
They don't.
The DNA strands in our cells contain parts called
telomeres. These carry no information, but at each replication a bit of the strand is lost. Since a minimum length of the strand is necessary for replication, the cells stop replacing themselves after a certain number of replications.
When we start to run out of new cells we age.

Answer 2

The reason that we age, or more specifically, the reasons are cells age is due telomeric shortening. Telomere shortening is a natural result of cellular division. All chromosomes have DNA segments called telomeres at each end, therefore, there are 4 telomeres total on a pair of chromosomes. They can be easily visualized as the small plastic plastic pieces that are found on the end of shoe laces.
...Each time a cell divides, about 200 base-pairs are lost from each end of the chromosomes (from the telomeric segment). Telomeres provide the funtion of preventing unlimited growth of normal cells by limiting their life span. Since each chromosome possesses telomeres of finite lengths, the number of divisions a cell can undergo is limited by this store of telomeric DNA. The more times a cell divides, the shorter the telomere becomes, and ultimately, after a limited number of cellular divisions, the length of the telomere becomes so short that the cell cannot divide any more. When a cell reaches this state it is called senescence.
....An experiment was performed with fibroblasts in culture to prove this theory. It was found that all fibroblasts can undergo 55 rounds of cellular division and then the cells, under a microscope, appear old, and they can no longer divide and they eventually die. This specific number of cellular divisions a cell can undergo before going into senescene is called Hayflick's Number. This number is based upon the fact that normal cells have a finite life span and the actual number is how many times, maximum, a cell can divide before it dies. Essentially, Hayflick's number allows the cell to have some kind of "idea" of how old it is.
This fact of telomere shortening as the cause of cell aging and cell death is clearly evidenced by cancer cells that have gained immortality. Cancer cells develop a way to reactivate a gene called telomerase, which under normal conditions is not transcribed, and this telomerase enzyme continually adds telomeric sequences back onto the chromosomes after cellular division. The cancer cells effectively remove the potential threat and pressure of telomeric shortening by getting rid of Hayflick's number. This makes the tumor cell immortal, and immortality is one of the most important attributes of a normal cell transforming into a cancer cell.
....Another line of evidence that telomeric shortening is the cause of cell aging and cell death is the fact that there are two cells that are normal to the body that are exempt from Hayflicks number. These cells are the germ line cells and stem cells. This makes sense since stem cells continually produce new cells in order to replace old cells, such as the epithelial cells, or the blood cells. Stem cells also have an active telomerase enzyme to add the 200bp fragment back to the ends of their chromosomes after they divide. This ensures that template DNA is never a limiting factor, thus we can produce epithelial cells our entire lives, regardless of the fact that they are sloughed off every 28 days or so.

In conclusion, the average telomere length correlates with the life span of the cell, and the eventual shortening of chromosomal DNA to a point where they cannot replicate anymore causes cell death, and hence, we die. It is possible, and is currently being researched, if preventing the loss of telomeric DNA during cellular division could be the "fountain of youth" scientists have been searching for. Currently, it seems promising.

Answer 3

Recently scientists have associated aging with the mitochondia. The mitochondria was thought to be a seperate organism before it entered into a symbotic relationship within an organism. This is why mitochondria have their own DNA, and can undergo mitosis interally. While the mitchondria allows for cellular respirtation it also releases free radicals. These free radicals are elimated with oxidative atoms which stabilze the atoms, which tend do decrease as we age. Therefore as we age we are less and less able to combat the free radicls. Hence we age.

Answer 4

Technically, oxygen causes us to age. Think about it. Each breath we take initiates cellular respiration, and that wears on the cell. The cells can only take so much, and yes they can reproduce, but at the rate that mitosis takes, one cycle beats the other to the finish and we die.

Answer 5

Oxidation is one of the greater reasons. Oxygen goes around picking up electrons from, say, cell membranes, destabilizing the charge and breaking the cellular cohesion there. This in turn, can set this destabilized region up for attack by the immune system as non-self.

Answer 6

Adam and Eve were made to live forever without aging. After sin entered the earth death occured. Death occurs because our bodies are ravaged by evil and so the cells consequently organs degenerate. If u take careful notice, u will realize that people who r happy with no worries and are spiritual age less rapidly. Therefore the antiaging formula is in utopia.

Answer 7

the over replication of our genes

Answer 8

arguments gets everyone old.