ArticleScience (New York, N.Y.)2020
Determinants of telomere length across human tissues.
Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph
Article in Science (New York, N.Y.), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 328 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
328citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
31.7field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
What it found
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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
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Who cites it
328 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 481 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of Maternal Lifetime Stress on Offspring Biological Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- Parental Age Effects on Offspring Telomere Length Across Vertebrates: A Meta-Analysis.Molecular ecology · 2026Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Highlights a Link Between Aerobic Fitness and Telomere Maintenance.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Pooled it
- The Association between Telomere Length and Head and Neck Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Validation of human telomere length multi-ancestry meta-analysis association signals identifies POP5 and KBTBD6 as human telomere length regulation genes.Nature communications · 2024Pooled it
- Telomere length and chronological age across the human lifespan: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 414 study samples including 743,019 individuals.Ageing research reviews · 2023Pooled it
- DNA methylation-estimated phenotypes, telomere length, aging and risk of intracranial aneurysms: Evidence from genetic studies.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2026Article
- Preliminary insights into whole-blood mitochondrial DNA copy number and telomere length in Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy.Journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Review
- Telomere variant sequences encode the genetic blueprint for allele-specific telomere length.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Histological aging signatures for monitoring tissue-specific aging and disease.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- RTEL1 mutation modifies dyskeratosis congenita caused by a telomerase RNA template mutation.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The ageing holobiont: crosstalk between telomere dynamics, oxidative stress and the gut microbiome.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- DXA-Measured Visceral Adipose Tissue and Accelerated Biological Aging in Middle-Aged Adults.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2026Article
- Telomere-associated non-malignant pulmonary diseases: Pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic strategies.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2026Review
- Ageing in Honeybees: Telomere Length Is Driven by Climate and Resource Availability Rather Than Urbanisation or Pollution.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Impact of tobacco smoking on estimated telomere shortening and epigenetic age acceleration among human blood immune cell types.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Quantifying telomere length: from bulk assays to single-molecule resolution.Biophysics reports · 2026Article
- Erythrocyte Count, Anemia, and the Human Natural Lifespan Limit: Evidence from the Long Life Family Study.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Prenatal tobacco exposure and adult offspring brain health: the mediating role of leukocyte telomere length in a large population-based cohort.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
268 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
23 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Kathryn DemanelisDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1477-562X
Farzana JasmineDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Lin S ChenDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Meytal ChernoffDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2704-8912
Lin TongDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1181-3763
Dayana DelgadoDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Chenan ZhangDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1773-4441
Justin ShinkleDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Mekala SabarinathanDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8234-5106
Hannah LinDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0137-7515
Eduardo RamirezDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7054-2479
Meritxell OlivaDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5068-213X
Sarah Kim-HellmuthNew York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8791-5729
Barbara E StrangerSection of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology, Center for Data Intensive Science, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9021-7331
Tsung-Po LaiCenter of Human Development and Aging, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7315-0200
Abraham AvivCenter of Human Development and Aging, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7441-0227
Kristin G ArdlieBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4272-6283
François AguetBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9414-300X
Habibul AhsanDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
GTEx Consortium
Jennifer A DohertyHuntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1454-8187
Muhammad G KibriyaDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9784-6958
Brandon L PierceDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. brandonpierce@uchicago.edu.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7829-952X
Chicago Department of Public Health · USBroad Institute · USMax Planck Institute of Psychiatry · DENorthwestern University · USRutgers, The State University of New Jersey · USUniversity of Utah · US
Funding
New York Center for Collaborative Research In Common Disease Genomics: Genome Aggregation and Joint Variant Calling for CCDG Freeze2UM1HG008901 · NHGRI · NEW YORK GENOME CENTER · PI MANIATIS, THOMAS P, WIGLER, MICHAEL H · 2016 to 2020
$56.6MThe UCSC Genome BrowserU41HG002371 · NHGRI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ · PI KENT, WILLIAM JAMES · 2012 to 2021
$36.6MINSTITUTIONAL TRAINING GRANT IN GENOME SCIENCET32HG000044 · NHGRI · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI MICHAEL P. SNYDER · 1995 to 2026
$32.2MMEDICAL SCIENTIST TRAININGT32GM007281 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI CLARK, MARCUS RAMSAY · 1985 to 2022
$32.1MScripps Translational Science InstituteUL1TR002550 · NCATS · SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE · PI TOPOL, ERIC JEFFREY · 2018 to 2022
$28.9MPilot and Feasibility ProgramP30DK020595 · NIDDK · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI GRAEME I BELL · 2013 to 2026
$20.9MChemoprevention of arsenic-induced skin cancerR01CA107431 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI AHSAN, HABIBUL · 2005 to 2014
$17.3MPilot Program CoreP30ES027792 · NIEHS · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI Gokhan M. Mutlu, Gail S Prins · 2017 to 2026
$13.6MGenome analysis: statistical methods and applicationsR01HG002585 · NHGRI · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI MATTHEW STEPHENS · 2002 to 2026
$8.4MSPECIALIZED TRAINING PROGRAM IN THE DEMOGRAPHY &ECON.T32AG000243 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI DAVID O MELTZER · 1994 to 2026
$8.2MStructurally complex genome loci in human populations and human phenotypesR01HG006855 · NHGRI · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · PI Steven Andrew McCarroll · 2012 to 2026
$8.2MUniversity of Chicago Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) - Renewal 01R25GM109439 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI SCHWARTZ, NANCY B · 2014 to 2023
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Abstract
Telomere shortening is a hallmark of aging. Telomere length (TL) in blood cells has been studied extensively as a biomarker of human aging and disease; however, little is known regarding variability in TL in nonblood, disease-relevant tissue types. Here, we characterize variability in TLs from 6391 tissue samples, representing >20 tissue types and 952 individuals from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. We describe differences across tissue types, positive correlation among tissue types, and associations with age and ancestry. We show that genetic variation affects TL in multiple tissue types and that TL may mediate the effect of age on gene expression. Our results provide the foundational knowledge regarding TL in healthy tissues that is needed to interpret epidemiological studies of TL and human health.
Indexed as
AgingGenetic MarkersGenetic VariationHumansOrgan SpecificityTelomereTelomere HomeostasisTelomere ShorteningGenetic Markers
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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.