The aging process starts even before birth, the researchers said, adding that providing mothers with antioxidants during pregnancy can help their children to age slowly in adulthood.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK used rats to model pregnancy and fetal development.
Children of mothers with lower levels of oxygen in the uterus – which, in humans, can be a consequence of consumption of snuff during pregnancy or pregnancy high – aged faster in adulthood, reported researchers.
Our DNA is “written” on chromosomes, of which humans carry 23 pairs. The ends of each chromosome are known as telomeres and act similar to plastic joining the ends of the cords, so that the chromosomes preventing fraying”, said the researchers
As we age, these telomeres become shorter and shorter, and therefore its length may be used as a proxy to measure aging.
For the study, researchers measured the length of telomeres in blood vessels of adult rats laboratory born to mothers, who were or were not fed antioxidants during normal or complicated pregnancy
