Many diseases that involve malignant tumors in the elderly affect the quality of human life; therefore, the relationship between aging and pathogenesis in geriatric diseases must be under-stood to develop appropriate treatments for these diseases. Recent reports have shown that epigenetic regulation caused by changes in the local chromatin structure plays an essential role in aging. This review provides an overview of the roles of telomere shortening on genomic structural changes during an age-dependent shift in gene expression. Telomere shortening is one of the most prominent events that is involved in cellular aging and it affects global gene expression through genome rearrangement. This review provides novel insights into the roles of telomere shortening in disease-affected cells during pathogenesis and suggests novel therapeutic approaches.
Keywords: aging; gene expression; telomere; telomere looping; telomere position effect.