From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Thu Jan 03 2002 - 23:57:40 MST
fwding this news:
p53 May Accelerate the Rate of Aging in Mice
January 3, 2002; As reported in Friday's issue of Nature, researchers at
Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas have reported that an
upregulated p53 gene, which is known to protect mice against cancer in
early years, causes significant physical deterioration in later life with a
19 percent increase in mortality! [96 weeks average life expectancy vs. 118
weeks for controls.] This phenomenon is what is called antagonistic
pleiotropy.
Refs:
"Protein that Wards Off Cancer also Affects Aging, Study Finds," The
Washington Post, reprinted in The Los Angeles Times, p. A14 (January 3, 2002);
"Cancer-Fighting Protein Was Found to Spur Faster Aging in Mice," The Wall
Street Journal, p. A1 (January 3, 2002).
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