People with many moles may be more susceptible to skin cancer, but a new study suggests that their cells may age more slowly than those of people with fewer moles.

As cells age, telomeres, the DNA at the ends of chromosomes, become shorter. Shorter telomere length has been linked to chronic diseases like diabetes and atherosclerosis. The number of moles a person has also decreases with age.

The researchers, led by Dr. Véronique Bataille, a consultant dermatologist at King’s College London, measured the number of moles and the telomere length of the white blood cells of more than 1,800 women ages 18 to 79.

After adjusting for age, they found that the women with the most moles also had the longest telomeres — the equivalent of a difference of six to seven years less cell aging compared with those who had the fewest moles. The paper appears in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.