Determinants of telomere length across human tissues.
| Citation | . “Determinants Of Telomere Length Across Human Tissues.”. Science (New York, N.y.). |
| Center | University of Chicago |
| Author | Kathryn Demanelis, Farzana Jasmine, Lin S Chen, Meytal Chernoff, Lin Tong, Dayana Delgado, Chenan Zhang, Justin Shinkle, Mekala Sabarinathan, Hannah Lin, Eduardo Ramirez, Meritxell Oliva, Sarah Kim-Hellmuth, Barbara E Stranger, Tsung-Po Lai, Abraham Aviv, Kristin G Ardlie, François Aguet, Habibul Ahsan, GTEx Consortium, Jennifer A Doherty, Muhammad G Kibriya, Brandon L Pierce |
| 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. |
| Year of Publication |
2020
|
| Journal |
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|
| Volume |
369
|
| Issue |
6509
|
| Date Published |
12/2020
|
| ISSN Number |
1095-9203
|
| DOI |
10.1126/science.aaz6876
|
| Alternate Journal |
Science
|
| PMID |
32913074
|
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