Grant: Catalyst Grant: Pilot Projects in Aging

Telomeres are the chromosome caps that are necessary to keep chromosomes from unraveling. As with each cell division a piece of the telomere end is lost, the length of telomeres is a marker of biological aging of the cells and the organism as a whole. Recently, the telomere length has been linked to several frequent human diseases connected with high blood pressure. Also, the telomere length has been shown by us and others to be heritable both in humans and animal models of human diseases. In this pilot project, we will search for the genes affecting telomere length in 120 hypertensive French-Canadian families and a large experimental animal model set derived from crossing of rat strains showing high and normal blood pressure. In the rat set, we will also determine the genes, whose activity follows the pattern of shorter or longer telomeres. After comparing the two sets of results and incorporating the data from scientific literature, we should be able to establish common genes affecting the telomere length in mammals. The accrued knowledge will serve as a stepping stone for a more comprehensive project on the relations of the identified genes to the process of aging, their relation to blood pressure and their potential of becoming novel markers or even targets for diseases of aging.