Abstract: The mechanism of cellular senescence is an important issue in cell biology. With the development of study on relationship between telomeretelomerase and cell senescence/aging, the telomere shortening has become one of the biological marks of cell aging and age growth. This article firstly introduced the structure and function of telomere and telomerase, then analyzed the relationship between them and cell aging or the growth of age, finally summarized the application progress in age estimation based on telomeres and telomerase.

Key words: telomere; telomerase; cellular aging; age estimation