June 2003

Only reading abstracts.

"Telomere-Binding TRF2/MTBP Localization during Mouse Spermatogenesis and Cell Cycle of the Mouse Cells L929". Spot the telomere and the telomere membrane binding protein. Maybe I should be interested in this one, but don't seem to be.

A review of Werner's and Hutchinson-Gilford progerias.

A review of "Geriatric Medicine: an evidence based approach". Supposedly good.

An interesting new section called Dissertations, where they publish abstracts of thesis that are relevant.  Very cool idea. I can only see the first one and a half. One about the roles of telomere-binding proteins have in telomere function in yeast, another one about targeting telomere and telomerase for cancer treatment, maybe mainly with a combination of paclitaxel, which damages telomeres, and AZT, which inhibits telomerase.

The review of the literature looks at a paper about the relationship between telomere length and Alzheimer's, stroke, and vascular dementia patients.  I can't tell what happened since the results are on the second page, but going by the title of the paper, vascular dementia patients probably have shorter telomeres.  (PS: actually, the paper is available in full, and yes, people with vascular dementia seem to have shorter telomeres on their peripheral blood mononuclear cells)