To date, although the mean human life span has been quite alterable, the maximum human life span has not. Recent work demonstrates that the maximum healthy life span of several species can be extended by dietary restriction and genetic alteration; potentially the maximum healthy human life span might be extended in a similar fashion. More dramatically, researchers have now shown that cell senescence can be reversed by transfection of the catalytic component of telomerase in normal human cells. This allows us to test the hypothesis that cell senescence underlies human aging and age-related disease. This possibility has unprecedented and profound implications for clinical medicine; it has equally unprecedented and profound—and largely unpredictable—implications for our social structures as w
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