Looking young for your age? Thank the Peter Pan gene It could
also pave the way for drugs that hold back the hands of time and
keep hearts and brains healthy into old age. The British-led
research team made the discovery after trawling the DNA of more
than 12,000 people for patterns that affected the rate their
bodies aged. This identified one stretch of DNA that clearly
sped up ageing, the journal Nature Genetics reports. Up to 7 per
cent of the population has two copies of it, meaning they look
up to eight years older than people of the same age. Another 38
per cent has one copy, ageing them by three to four years. A
fortunate, and fresh-faced, 55 per cent do not have it at all.
Instead, they have two copies of the ‘Peter Pan’ gene, meaning
they remain youthful-looking for longer. The key to the study
was the length of telomeres – tiny biological clocks that cap
the ends of chromosomes. They get shorter and shorter with time,
until eventually the cells die. The researchers, from the
University of Leicester