Activation of pericentromeric and telomeric heterochromatin in cultured lymphocytes from old individuals.
Lezhava. Teimuraz T; Jokhadze. Tina T
Key Findings
- Aged lymphocytes show increased heterochromatinization compared with young cells.
- Livagen peptide can partially reverse (deheterochromatinize) this age‑related chromatin tightening in vitro.
- Livagen reduced the number of cobalt‑induced chromosomal abnormalities and altered where sister chromatid exchanges occurred.
Practical Outcomes
- Livagen may have the potential to influence age‑related chromatin changes, but the evidence is limited to cell‑culture experiments. For biohackers, this suggests a possible anti‑aging mechanism worth monitoring, but no concrete dosage, safety, or efficacy data exist for human use yet. Until in‑vivo studies are available, incorporating Livagen into a protocol remains speculative.
Summary
The study shows that in cells taken from very old people, the DNA becomes more tightly packed (heterochromatin) with age, which can silence genes. Adding the peptide Livagen in the lab helped loosen this packing and reduced DNA damage caused by cobalt ions. However, the work was done only in cultured lymphocytes, not in living humans.
Abstract
The functional characteristics of chromosomes (level of total heterochromatin, chromosome instability, and sister chromatid exchanges [SCEs]) were studied in cultured lymphocytes derived from 80- to 91-year-old and 18- to 30-year-old (control group) individuals under the single and combined effect of CoCl(2) and bioregulator Livagen. The results obtained showed that chromosome heterochromatinization (condensation of eu- and heterochromatin regions) had progressively increased with aging and led to inactivation of a number of once functioning "active genes." The peptide bioregulator Livagen could induce reactivation (deheterochromatinization) of chromatin to modify heterochromatinized chromosomal regions in cultured lymphocytes of aged individuals. Our results indicated that metal ions (CoCl(2)) caused a significant increase in the level of chromosomal aberrations in old donors in comparison with the control group (P < 0.05). The peptide bioregulator Livagen was effective in decreasing the number of changes induced by the CoCl(2) 3.4 +/- 0.6% (control group 4.2 +/- 0.7%). Co(2+) ions single and Co(2+) ions in combination with the Livagen changed the distribution of SCE over chromosomes: pericentromeric heterochromatin was more sensitive to the effect of CoCl(2) (15.4 +/- 1.8% SCE), while SCE were mostly registered in telomeric heterochromatin under the combined effect of CoCl(2) and Livagen 12.0 +/- 1.2% SCE (control group 4.5 +/- 0.6% and 2.8 +/- 0.5% SCE, respectively). Thus, we have first demonstrated that Co(2+) ions separately and in combination with the bioregulator Livagen have different chromosomal target regions as demonstrated by SCE induction, deheterochromatinization of precentromeric and telomeric heterochromatin in lymphocytes from old individuals.
Study Information
pubmed
2007
2007-04-01T00:00:00.000Z
10.1196/annals.1395.043
8
49