Lobsters and Their Longevity: How Are They Linked to Human Lifespan?

Lobsters don't die because of old age, a report recently posted online specified. Rather, they end up at the seafood buffet, or they are dying from exhaustion during molting, the process where they substitute their shell because of their growing size.

As specified in a Medical Xpress report, no one likes the idea of getting old although it appears to be an unavoidable part of life.

Most species are growing, developing, and repairing damage to their bodies until a specific point in adulthood.

After this, the body turns less able of self-repair; and slowly, it starts to accumulate damage. However, this does not appear to apply to lobsters.

These animals keep growing throughout their distinctively long lives, the oldest identified lobsters captured have weighed more than 9 kilograms, with ages approximated between 120 and 140 years.

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Lobsters don’t die because of old age, a report recently posted online specified. Rather, they end up at the seafood buffet, or they are dying from exhaustion during molting, the process where they substitute their shell because of their growing size.

Biological Clock in Cells

To understand the reason lobsters are quite long-lived, one needs to first understand the aging process.

As specified in a similar Medical Daily report, humans are made out of cells that contain DNA, the genetic code, instructing the bodies to carry out all the functions essential for life. The linear DNA strands are bundled up into a construction known as "chromosomes."

Each chromosome comprises telomeres, which are caps on the ends of DNA strands to shield them from damage.

The telomeres are similar to the plastic tips on the shoelaces' ends, which stopped them from fraying. Without them, the DNA can turn damaged. They could also change the genetic code, which can impact the cell's ability to properly function.

There's a need to be able to shield the information in the genes, with the DNA, according to Dr. Ashwin Unnikrishnan, Head of the Molecular Mechanisms in Leukemia laboratory at UNSW Medicine & Health.

Unnikrishnan also said that cells have "evolved a solution" to this problem by adding the features known as "telomeres."

These are vitally repeating units of DNA that do not really encode for any information per se, although they can be encoded while protecting the information within the chromosome.

Immortality in Lobsters

Lobsters have a distinct lifespan because of an enzyme known as telomerase in many of their cells. Additionally, telomerase is restoring the length of telomeres, increasing the number of divisions a cell can produce before dying or becoming inactive.

This enables the cells to keep dividing and lobsters to keep growing and repairing their bodies; therefore, they have very long lives.

Humans only have active telomeres in specific special cells, such as stem cells, which can keep renewing themselves for quite long periods.

Other cells in the bodies, which do not have what has been called the "immortality enzymes," have a limited lifespan until the telomeres run out.

Complex Relationship Between Telomeres, Aging, and Cancer

This results in the unavoidable question if humans are using telomerase to slow down the biological clock and live a longer life.

The complex relationship between telomeres, cancer, and aging has to be better understood before telomerase could possibly ever be employed in a treatment setting, the UNSW Newsroom reported.

Lobsters live extraordinarily long lives - reaching more than 120 years in some cases. Could we harness the key to lobsters' #longevity to slow down our own #biologicalclock? https://t.co/IVMiRpyyzX
— UNSW Medicine & Health (@UNSWMedicine) September 19, 2022