{"id":144357,"date":"2022-08-18T13:22:29","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T18:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/zombie-cells-are-still-alive-but-cant-function-and-they-accumulate-as-we-age"},"modified":"2022-08-18T13:22:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T18:22:29","slug":"zombie-cells-are-still-alive-but-cant-function-and-they-accumulate-as-we-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/zombie-cells-are-still-alive-but-cant-function-and-they-accumulate-as-we-age","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Zombie Cells\u2019 Are Still Alive but Can\u2019t Function, and They Accumulate as We Age"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/zombie-cells-are-still-alive-but-cant-function-and-they-accumulate-as-we-age2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Damage to the ends of your chromosomes can create \u201czombie cells\u201d that are still alive but can\u2019t function, according to our recently published study in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41594-022-00790-y\">Nature Structural and Molecular Biology<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>When cells prepare to divide, their DNA is tightly wound around proteins to form chromosomes that provide structure and support for genetic material. At the ends of these chromosomes are repetitive stretches of DNA called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genome.gov\/genetics-glossary\/Telomere\">telomeres<\/a> that form a protective cap to prevent damage to the genetic material.<\/p>\n<p>However, telomeres shorten each time a cell divides. This means that as cells divide more and more as you age, your telomeres become increasingly shorter and more likely to lose their ability to protect your DNA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Damage to the ends of your chromosomes can create \u201czombie cells\u201d that are still alive but can\u2019t function, according to our recently published study in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. When cells prepare to divide, their DNA is tightly wound around proteins to form chromosomes that provide structure and support for genetic material. At the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-life-extension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}