Is DNA fragile?
Oh boy is it.
Every day, every cell in your body suffers DNA damage around ONE MILLION times. Thatâs as many as 37 quintillion individual bits of damage.
That damage can be a physical break in the DNA strand (occurring around 55,000 times a day), or occur chemically due to oxidation. This damage occurs completely naturally as part of your bodyâs normal way of functioning.
As a result, most of this damage gets patched up before any lasting harm is done- so no worries!
If you have any questions about genetics, DNA or anything else science-related, drop me an ask here.
So what happens when the damage isnât repaired?
Well, your cells have three options:
Apoptosis, otherwise known as âcell suicideâ
Senescence, where the cell stops replicating permanently
Cancer
Cancer is the unchecked replication of cells. Itâs life without limits. And, contrary to what you might imagine at first, life needs some limits. Specifically, the Hayflick Limit.
The Hayflick limit is the number of times a normal human cell population can divide before becoming senescent, around 40-60 times. This limit corresponds to the length of sections at the end of each chromosome known as âtelomeresâ. Every time the DNA replicates, the telomeres become shorter.
Cancer cells are immortal due to an enzyme called telomerase which prevents the natural shortening of the telomeres. This knowledge gives us an advantage in the potential treatment of cancer- if we can produce a telomerase inhibitor, cancer cells would be just as mortal as any other.
















