SynthesisAgeing research reviews2023
A review and meta-analysis: Cross-tissue telomere length correlations in healthy humans.
Synthesis in Ageing research reviews, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Parental Age Effects on Offspring Telomere Length Across Vertebrates: A Meta-Analysis.Molecular ecology · 2026Pooled it
- Telomere length and appendicular lean mass over six years in older adults with overweight or obesity and metabolic syndrome: a prospective cohort study.GeroScience · 2026Article
- The ageing holobiont: crosstalk between telomere dynamics, oxidative stress and the gut microbiome.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Practitioner Review: Infant mental health meets cell and molecular biology - a look to the future.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Review
- Cross-tissue comparison of epigenetic aging clocks in humans.Aging cell · 2025Article
- Leukocyte telomere length is associated with MRI-thigh fat-free muscle volume: data from 16 356 UK Biobank adults.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2024Article
- Cross-tissue comparison of telomere length and quality metrics of DNA among individuals aged 8 to 70 years.PloS one · 2024Article
- Salivary telomere length in oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma: A preliminary case- control study.Journal of oral biology and craniofacial researchArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimTissue source has been shown to exert a significant effect on the magnitude of associations between telomere length and various health outcomes and exposures. The purpose of the present qualitative review and meta-analysis is to describe and investigate the impact of study design and methodological features on the correlation between telomere lengths measured in different tissues from the same healthy individual.
methodsThis meta-analysis included studies published from 1988 to 2022. Databases searched included PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science and studies were identified using the keywords "telomere length" and "tissues" or "tissue." A total of 220 articles of 7856 initially identified studies met inclusion criteria for qualitative review, of which 55 met inclusion criteria for meta-analysis in R
resultsStudies meeting inclusion criteria for meta-analysis tended to have enhanced demographic and methodological reporting relative to studies only included in the qualitative review. A total of 463 pairwise correlations reported for 4324 unique individuals and 102 distinct tissues were extracted from the 55 studies and subject to meta-analysis, resulting in a significant effect size z = 0.66 (p < 0.0001) and meta-correlation coefficient of r = 0.58. Meta-correlations were significantly moderated by sample size and telomere length measurement methodology, with studies of smaller size and those using hybridization-based analyses exhibiting the largest meta-correlation. Tissue source also significantly moderated the meta-correlation, wherein correlations between samples of a different lineage (e.g., blood vs. non-blood) or collection method (e.g., peripheral vs. surgical) were lower than correlations between samples of the same lineage or collection method.
conclusionThese results suggest that telomere lengths measured within individuals are generally correlated, but future research should be intentional in selecting a tissue for telomere length measurement that is most biologically relevant to the exposure or outcome investigated and balance this with the feasibility of obtaining the sample in sufficient numbers of individuals.
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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.