Manestar-Blazić Teo
Med Hypotheses. 2004;62(5):770-2. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2003.12.017.
Different studies have demonstrated that offspring longevity depends on parental longevity and parental age at conception. The present paper suggests, based on the telomere theory of aging, that the longevity of the offspring is proportional to the telomere length and inversely proportional to the telomere state of integrity in the sperm cell and oocyte at conception. These two characteristics of telomeres depend on the age of parents. Telomeres become longer in gametes during the course of life, but at the same time they accumulate mutations (reduced state of integrity) that cause a faster loss of repetitive sequences. Because of these two mechanisms with opposing effects, there could exist an ideal age of the parents for the transmission of maximal longevity. The different longevity of men and women could partly be the result of different telomere dynamics of the sex chromosomes. The hypothesis also explains the risk of some birth defects associated with parental age at birth (telomeres are taken as a cause of birth defects).
不同的研究表明，后代的寿命取决于父母的寿命以及受孕时父母的年龄。本文基于衰老的端粒理论提出，后代的寿命与端粒长度成正比，与受孕时精子细胞和卵细胞中端粒的完整状态成反比。端粒的这两个特征取决于父母的年龄。在生命过程中，端粒在配子中会变长，但同时它们会积累突变（完整性降低），从而导致重复序列更快丢失。由于这两种具有相反作用的机制，可能存在一个父母的理想年龄，以传递最长的寿命。男性和女性不同的寿命可能部分是由于性染色体端粒动态不同所致。该假说还解释了一些与出生时父母年龄相关的出生缺陷风险（端粒被视为出生缺陷的一个原因）。
