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I heard the hypothesis, that the (main) reason of aging is the increasing number of mutations in body tissues. The higher the number of mutations is, the older tissue is.

Is this true? And how well supported is the idea?

Have somebody measured the numbers of mutations in different tissues at different ages, and if so, where I can get these numbers?

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I think telomere shortening largely accounts for the replicative cell aging. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22901253 The increase in no. of mutations with age surely does affect the tissue/organism survival too. There's a recent study that I'd like to share here. It is quite interesting and informative. http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/mutations-found-115-year-old-womans-blood-could-help-unlock-secrets-aging

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  • $\begingroup$ The article says telomeres are shortening in stem cells too (par. 5 end). Is this true? I read stem cells have telomerase working, which is preventing telomere shortening? $\endgroup$ – Suzan Cioc May 2 '14 at 8:40

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