A new study suggests that unrepaired DNA damage can increase the speed of aging.

This exposure can lead to free-radical production in our bodies, which damages our DNA and tissues. A new study from West Virginia University researcher Eric E. Kelley — in collaboration with the University of Minnesota — suggests that unrepaired DNA damage can increase the speed of aging.

The study appears in the journal Nature.

Kelley and his team created genetically-modified mice with a crucial DNA-repair protein missing from their hematopoietic stem cells, immature immune cells that develop into white blood cells. Without this repair protein, the mice were unable to fix damaged DNA accrued in their immune cells.

«By the time the genetically-modified mouse is 5 months old, it’s like a 2-year-old mouse,» said Kelley, associate professor and associate chair of research in the School of Medicine’s Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. «It has all the symptoms and physical characteristics. It has hearing loss, osteoporosis, renal dysfunction, visual impairment, hypertension, as well as other age-related issues. It’s prematurely aged just because it has lost its ability to repair its DNA.»

According to Kelley, a normal 2-year-old mouse is about equivalent in age to a human in their late 70s to early 80s.

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