ArticlePloS one2024
Cross-tissue comparison of telomere length and quality metrics of DNA among individuals aged 8 to 70 years.
Article in PloS one, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of long-term caloric restriction on telomere length in healthy adults: CALERIE™ 2 trial analysis.Aging cell · 2024Trial
- Maternal biological aging from pregnancy through four years postpartum with disrupted recovery by subsequent pregnancy.iScience · 2026Article
- 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
- Remote Blood Collection for Telomere Length Measurement: Assessing the Impact of Sample Characteristics and Handling on DNA Quality and Assay Outcomes.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- How sample handling distorts telomere studies.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- DNAm age differences between infinium methylationEPICv1 vs EPICv2 in buffy coat, PBMC, and saliva samples.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Maternal telomere length and oxidative stress in pregnancy: cross-sectional analysis with an exploratory examination of systemic inflammation.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Cross-tissue comparison of epigenetic aging clocks in humans.Aging cell · 2025Article
- Telomere Dynamics in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Critical Synthesis.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Infant buccal telomere length: associations with maternal distress in pregnancy and offspring temperament.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Monochrome Multiplex Quantitative PCR Telomere Length Measurement.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2024Article
- Early origins of health and disease risk: The case for investigating adverse exposures and biological aging in utero, across childhood, and into adolescence.Child development perspectives · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Telomere length (TL) is an important biomarker of cellular aging, yet its links with health outcomes may be complicated by use of different tissues. We evaluated within- and between-individual variability in TL and quality metrics of DNA across five tissues using a cross-sectional dataset ranging from 8 to 70 years (N = 197). DNA was extracted from all tissue cells using the Gentra Puregene DNA Extraction Kit. Absolute TL (aTL) in kilobase pairs was measured in buccal epithelial cells, saliva, dried blood spots (DBS), buffy coat, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) using qPCR. aTL significantly shortened with age for all tissues except saliva and buffy coat, although buffy coat was available for a restricted age range (8 to 15 years). aTL did not significantly differ across blood-based tissues (DBS, buffy coat, PBMC), which had significantly longer aTL than buccal cells and saliva. Additionally, aTL was significantly correlated for the majority of tissue pairs, with partial Spearman's correlations controlling for age and sex ranging from ⍴ = 0.18 to 0.51. We also measured quality metrics of DNA including integrity, purity, and quantity of extracted DNA from all tissues and explored whether controlling for DNA metrics improved predictions of aTL. We found significant tissue variation: DNA from blood-based tissues had high DNA integrity, more acceptable A260/280 and A260/230 values, and greater extracted DNA concentrations compared to buccal cells and saliva. Longer aTL was associated with lower DNA integrity, higher extracted DNA concentrations, and higher A260/230, particularly for saliva. Model comparisons suggested that incorporation of quality DNA metrics improves models of TL, although relevant metrics vary by tissue. These findings highlight the merits of using blood-based tissues and suggest that incorporation of quality DNA metrics as control variables in population-based studies can improve TL predictions, especially for more variable tissues like buccal and saliva.
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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.