London. (EFE). – U.S. scientists have discovered a mechanism in DNA which works as a kind of biological clock that can measure the age tissues and organs and to help them understand the process of aging , reports the journal Genome Biology .
According to this research, by experts at the University of California, Los Angeles (USA), the clock shows that while many healthy tissues age at the same rate as the body as a whole, some do faster or slower.
Investigators believe
operation unravel help you understand the aging process and also to develop drugs to control it.
“It would be very exciting to develop therapeutic interventions to reset the clock and hopefully stay young,” said Steve Horvath, professor of genetics at the University of California, in charge of this investigation.
analysis, Horvath evaluated nearly 8,000 DNA samples from 51 types of tissue and cells of the body, but particularly noted how methylation, a natural process that chemically modifies DNA, varies with age.
biological clock is accelerated in the first years of life up to 20 years, then slows down and keeps a steady pace, according to research, which indicates that it is still unknown whether changes in DNA cause aging.
“The development of gray hair is a mark of aging, but no one could tell if it causes aging,” said Harvath.
biological clock has revealed particular results as the tests of heart healthy tissues show that their biological age is about nine years younger than thought, while female breast tissue age faster than the rest of the body .
“The female breast tissue, even healthy, look older than others of the human body. This is interesting considering that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women.
addition, age is one of the risk factors of cancer, so that such results could explain why breast cancer is so common, “said Horvath.
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