School of Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Key Lab of Industrial Fermentation Microbiology of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Tianjin 300457, China.
Food Funct. 2021 Apr 7;12(7):2914-2924. doi: 10.1039/d0fo03246h. Epub 2021 Mar 15.
Telomere shortening is one of the main causes of cellular senescence. Caffeine is a natural stimulant most commonly found in coffee and tea. In this study, caffeine was found to promote the expression of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) at both mRNA and protein levels, and consequently extended the telomere length and prevented cellular senescence. Knockdown of TERT eliminated the effect of caffeine on telomere elongation. Moreover, animal studies indicated that caffeine promoted the expression of TERT and extended the telomere length in the thymus and spleen of mice treated with caffeine for a long period of eight months. In addition, caffeine restored the decline of organ index and improved the histological structural change of the thymus, spleen and liver of mice due to aging. These results suggest that caffeine promotes the expression of TERT to delay cellular senescence and aging, which help to understand the mechanism for the beneficial effects of caffeine containing foods on health.
端粒缩短是细胞衰老的主要原因之一。咖啡因是一种天然兴奋剂，最常见于咖啡和茶中。在这项研究中，发现咖啡因可促进端粒酶逆转录酶（TERT）在 mRNA 和蛋白质水平上的表达，从而延长端粒长度并防止细胞衰老。TERT 的敲低消除了咖啡因对端粒延长的影响。此外，动物研究表明，咖啡因可促进 TERT 的表达，并延长长期（长达 8 个月）接受咖啡因治疗的小鼠的胸腺和脾脏中的端粒长度。此外，咖啡因可恢复因衰老而导致的器官指数下降，并改善小鼠的胸腺、脾脏和肝脏的组织学结构变化。这些结果表明，咖啡因通过促进 TERT 的表达来延缓细胞衰老和衰老，有助于理解含咖啡因食物对健康有益的作用机制。
