| From: | John E Pederson <lobo1@****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: How old get Shapeshifters ??? |
| Date: | Fri, 1 May 1998 19:11:00 -0500 |
writes:
>On 28 Apr 98 at 14:25, John E Pederson wrote:
>> I dunno if this is the original poster's explanation, but possibly
>> *extremely* high bilirubin levels...
>
>Well, I'm the original poster. :)
>My idea was based on something I've read about ageing a couple of month
>ago. They said that ageing is caused by the desintegration of the
>cromosomes (urgh. I hope I get half of the words right...), or more
>specifically, the ends of them. I don't remember much more...
>Anyway, my idea was that elfs don't show any signals of this decay,
until
>it's to late. Then, they seem to rapidly age (for about a month, or so)
and
>die.
>Did I mess anything up`?
Not really. The ends of the chromosomes are called the telomeres. When
the cell divides, a little bit of the telomere gets cut off. While it's
believed that the information coded in the telomeres is garbage, or
evolutionary leftovers at best, the problem apprently lies in what
happens when you run out telomere -- you guessed it, useful stuff gets
lost in the mix. Apparently this may be part of the problem with cancer -
the odd mutation that produces a cancer cell may cause it to produce a
hormone called telomerin, which rebuilds the telomeres after cell
division. My info's a bit old on that, though, and I don't know what (if
any) final verdict there was.
--
John Pederson "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!"
aka Canthros, shapeshifter-mage --South Park
lobo1@****.com canthros1@***.com john.e.pederson@***********.edu
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/4864 ICQ UIN 3190186
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