Telomere length integrates psychological factors in the successful aging story, but what about the biology?

摘要

Over the last decades the focus of telomere biology research has shifted from basic biology toward epidemiology. Although telomere research goes back to Olovnikov's "theory of mar-ginotomy" (1), which entails fundamental molecular biology, recent studies have particularly used telomere length and related measures as indices of biological aging on an individual's level. As a consequence, a fast growing literature examines correlates and predictors of this marker, thereby elucidating psychological, behavioral, environmental, and other predictors of biological aging.