5 ms·

This case has no application in aging research, and is of no interest to the biogerontology community. It's an interesting developmental abnormality, but nothin

This case has no application in aging research, and is of no interest to the biogerontology community. It's an interesting developmental abnormality, but nothing more. Aging is caused by accumulated biochemical damage, and this person is apparently aging normally at the level of cells and macromolecules.

astine 16y ago
Exactly. Failing to go through puberty is a developmental problem and it is doubtful that this child will live any longer than an ordinary human being, assuming her condition doesn't present complications that kill her long before that. I don't know anything about this Walker fellow, but from what I get from this article, he strikes me as a charlitan.
- rdzah 16y ago
  He's extremely lucky, but certainly no charlatan. He's stumbled across the human equivalent of a master developmental control gene knockout mouse. Someday you may get a replacement organ in time due to r&d stemming from this girl's DNA.
lionheart 16y ago
Even though I agree with you, I have to point out: You don't know that. Nobody does. We don't know exactly how aging works and this theory needs to be tested as well. If we stop research because we just know something, we'll never get anywhere.
- gte910h 16y ago
  We know a lot about how a lot of different mechanisms of aging works. Although I agree, he very likely doesn't know which ones are and aren't in play in this case either.
seanalltogether 16y ago
From the article "Her teeth, including her baby teeth, are like those of an eight-year-old. The length of the telomeres, on the other hand, corresponds to her actual age." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayflick_limit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayflick_limit "The Hayflick limit was discovered by Leonard Hayflick in 1961,[1] at the Wistar Institute (Philadelphia), when Hayflick demonstrated that a population of normal human fetal cells in a cell culture divide between 40 and 60 times. It then enters a senescence phase (refuting the contention by Alexis Carrel that normal cells are immortal). Each mitosis shortens the telomeres on the DNA of the cell. Telomere shortening in humans eventually blocks cell division and correlates with aging. This mechanism appears to prevent genomic instability and the development of cancer." So basically she's gonna die from cancer after the average number of years.
- extension 16y ago
  Telomeres prevent cancer by limiting cell division and Brooke's are normal. Other aspects of aging cause cancer but she is supposedly immune to those. But if her telomeres are shortening, doesn't that mean her aging will eventually catch up to normal because her cells stop regenerating?
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    > But if her telomeres are shortening It means she is aging. She is not developing.
    - mortenjorck 16y ago
      In a nutshell, yes. While the ordering of her cells is not changing with age, their internal chromosomal structure is.
meric 16y ago
It does look like she will get to keep her baby smooth skin though; Supermodels might be interested in that.

astine 16y ago

Exactly. Failing to go through puberty is a developmental problem and it is doubtful that this child will live any longer than an ordinary human being, assuming her condition doesn't present complications that kill her long before that. I don't know anything about this Walker fellow, but from what I get from this article, he strikes me as a charlitan.

rdzah 16y ago
He's extremely lucky, but certainly no charlatan. He's stumbled across the human equivalent of a master developmental control gene knockout mouse. Someday you may get a replacement organ in time due to r&d stemming from this girl's DNA.

lionheart 16y ago

Even though I agree with you, I have to point out: You don't know that. Nobody does. We don't know exactly how aging works and this theory needs to be tested as well. If we stop research because we just know something, we'll never get anywhere.

gte910h 16y ago
We know a lot about how a lot of different mechanisms of aging works. Although I agree, he very likely doesn't know which ones are and aren't in play in this case either.

seanalltogether 16y ago

From the article "Her teeth, including her baby teeth, are like those of an eight-year-old. The length of the telomeres, on the other hand, corresponds to her actual age." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayflick_limit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayflick_limit "The Hayflick limit was discovered by Leonard Hayflick in 1961,[1] at the Wistar Institute (Philadelphia), when Hayflick demonstrated that a population of normal human fetal cells in a cell culture divide between 40 and 60 times. It then enters a senescence phase (refuting the contention by Alexis Carrel that normal cells are immortal). Each mitosis shortens the telomeres on the DNA of the cell. Telomere shortening in humans eventually blocks cell division and correlates with aging. This mechanism appears to prevent genomic instability and the development of cancer." So basically she's gonna die from cancer after the average number of years.

extension 16y ago
Telomeres prevent cancer by limiting cell division and Brooke's are normal. Other aspects of aging cause cancer but she is supposedly immune to those. But if her telomeres are shortening, doesn't that mean her aging will eventually catch up to normal because her cells stop regenerating?
- rbanffy 16y ago
  > But if her telomeres are shortening It means she is aging. She is not developing.
  - mortenjorck 16y ago
    In a nutshell, yes. While the ordering of her cells is not changing with age, their internal chromosomal structure is.

meric 16y ago

It does look like she will get to keep her baby smooth skin though; Supermodels might be interested in that.