Telomeres and the natural lifespan limit in humans
Troels Steenstrup
(1)
,
Jeremy Kark
(2)
,
Simon Verhulst
(3)
,
Mikael Thinggaard
(4, 5)
,
Jacob Hjelmborg
(1, 6)
,
Christine Dalgård
(1)
,
Kirsten Ohm Kyvik
(7)
,
Lene Christiansen
(1)
,
Massimo Mangino
(8, 9)
,
Timothy D. Spector
(10)
,
Inge Petersen
(1)
,
Masayuki Kimura
(11)
,
Athanase Benetos
(12)
,
Carlos Labat
(12, 13)
,
Ronit Sinnreich
(2)
,
Shih-Jen Hwang
(14)
,
Daniel Lévy
(15)
,
Steven Hunt
(16)
,
Annette Fitzpatrick
(17)
,
Wei Chen
(18)
,
Gerald Berenson
(19)
,
Michelangela Barbieri
(20)
,
Giuseppe Paolisso
(20)
,
Shahinaz Gadalla
(21)
,
Sharon Savage
(21)
,
Kaare Christensen
(5)
,
Anatoliy Yashin
(22)
,
Konstantin Arbeev
(22)
,
Abraham Aviv
(11)
1
SDU -
University of Southern Denmark
2 Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine
3 Centre for Behaviour and Neurosciences, Chronobiology Unit
4 Odense University Hospital, Odense
5 Danish Aging Research Center, Institute of Public Health
6 The Danish Twin Registry
7 Institute of Regional Health Services Research
8 King‘s College London
9 Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
10 Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London
11 Center of Human Development and Aging, New Jersey Medical School
12 DCAC - Défaillance Cardiovasculaire Aiguë et Chronique
13 Service de Gériatrie [CHRU Nancy]
14 NHLBI - National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [Bethesda]
15 PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques
16 Cornell University [New York]
17 Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington
18 Tulane University
19 Tulane Center for Cardiovascular Health
20 Geriatric Medicine and Metabolic Diseases
21 Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics [Bethesda, MD, États-Unis]
22 Duke University [Durham]
2 Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine
3 Centre for Behaviour and Neurosciences, Chronobiology Unit
4 Odense University Hospital, Odense
5 Danish Aging Research Center, Institute of Public Health
6 The Danish Twin Registry
7 Institute of Regional Health Services Research
8 King‘s College London
9 Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
10 Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London
11 Center of Human Development and Aging, New Jersey Medical School
12 DCAC - Défaillance Cardiovasculaire Aiguë et Chronique
13 Service de Gériatrie [CHRU Nancy]
14 NHLBI - National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [Bethesda]
15 PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques
16 Cornell University [New York]
17 Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington
18 Tulane University
19 Tulane Center for Cardiovascular Health
20 Geriatric Medicine and Metabolic Diseases
21 Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics [Bethesda, MD, États-Unis]
22 Duke University [Durham]
Simon Verhulst
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 770881
- ORCID : 0000-0002-1143-6868
Athanase Benetos
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 764721
- ORCID : 0000-0002-5197-1515
Carlos Labat
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 780990
- ORCID : 0000-0002-5275-3405
Sharon Savage
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 1065391
Abraham Aviv
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 887709
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.