ArticlePloS one2017
Effect of pre-analytic variables on the reproducibility of qPCR relative telomere length measurement.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Telomere length analysis from minimally-invasively collected samples: Methods development and meta-analysis of the validity of different sampling techniques: American Journal of Human Biology.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2021Pooled it
- Quantile regression of the relationship between demographic factors and leukocyte telomere length, measured by Southern blot and qPCR.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Dyskeratosis Congenita with Pigmentary Mosaicism and Hematopoietic Trisomy 9 in a Female Associated with a de novo DKC1 Variant and Markedly Skewed X Chromosome Inactivation.NPJ genomic medicine · 2026Article
- DNA methylation-based estimator of blood telomere length (DNAmTL) outperforms qPCR-based telomere length in reflecting clinical and sociodemographic factors in people with HIV infection.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Heritability and age-dependent changes in genetic variation of telomere length in a wild house sparrow population.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Viewpoint: Pre- and post-lung transplant considerations for patients with ultra-short telomere length.The European respiratory journal · 2025Article
- ExonSurfer: a web-tool to design primers at exon-exon junctions.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Telomere length and cancer risk: finding Goldilocks.Biogerontology · 2024Review
- Monochrome Multiplex Quantitative PCR Telomere Length Measurement.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2024Article
- Telomere length as a predictive biomarker in osteoporosis (Review).Biomedical reports · 2023Review
- A comparison of feature selection methodologies and learning algorithms in the development of a DNA methylation-based telomere length estimator.BMC bioinformatics · 2023Article
- Fructose intake and its association with relative telomere length: an exploratory study among healthy Lebanese adults.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- Article
- Telomere-mediated lung disease.Physiological reviews · 2022Review
- Germline-somatic JAK2 interactions are associated with clonal expansion in myelofibrosis.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Telomere length and epigenetic clocks as markers of cellular aging: a comparative study.GeroScience · 2022Article
- Race Differences in Telomere Length in Benign Prostate Biopsies and Subsequent Risk of Prostate Cancer.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2022Article
- Use of nCounter mRNA profiling to identify at-arrival gene expression patterns for predicting bovine respiratory disease in beef cattle.BMC veterinary research · 2022Article
- Comparing qPCR and DNA methylation-based measurements of telomere length in a high-risk pediatric cohort.Aging · 2022Article
- Decoupling blood telomere length from age in recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant in the BMT-CTN 1202.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Telomeres, long nucleotide repeats and a protein complex at chromosome ends, shorten with each cell division and are susceptible to oxidative damage. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) is a widely-used technique to measure relative telomere length (RTL) in DNA samples but is challenging to optimize and significant lab-to-lab variability has been reported. In this study, we evaluated factors that may contribute to qPCR RTL measurement variability including DNA extraction methods, methods used for removing potential residual PCR inhibitors, sample storage conditions, and sample location in the PCR plate. Our results show that the DNA extraction and purification techniques, as well as sample storage conditions introduce significant variability in qPCR RTL results. We did not find significant differences in results based on sample location in the PCR plate or qPCR instrument used. These data suggest that lack of reproducibility in published association studies of RTL could be, in part, due to methodological inconsistencies. This study illustrates the importance of uniform sample handling, from DNA extraction through data generation and analysis, in using qPCR to determine RTL.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.