Ren Fu, Li Changyong, Xi Huanjiu, Wen Youfeng, Huang Keqiang
Institute of Anthropology, Department of Anatomy, Liaoning Medical University, Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China.
Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2009 Sep;30(3):252-5. doi: 10.1097/PAF.0b013e318187df8e.
In most normal somatic cells, the terminal restriction fragments (TRF) length and age are inversely correlated, which can be used to determine individual age. However, very little is known about the quantitative relationship between human telomeres and age. The aim of the present study was to investigate age-, gender-, and ethnicity-related changes in telomere length in human peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs). Changes with age in telomere lengths were assessed by Southern blotting. The results shown that telomeres shorten in human PBLs in an age-dependent manner (r = -0.913, P < 0.01). The formula for age estimation according to telomere shortening was Y = -16.539X + 236.287 (Y: age, year; X: mean TRF length, kb). We analyzed the mean TRF length in males and females and found that males had shorter telomeres than females. Moreover, we compared the TRF length of Tibetan and Han population in China and found that telomere length did not differ between 2 populations. We conclude that estimation of human age according to telomere shortening in PBLs is a novel method especially when there is no morphologic information, furthermore, the gender must be considered when age estimation is carried out based on telomere shortening.
在大多数正常体细胞中，端粒限制片段（TRF）长度与年龄呈负相关，这可用于确定个体年龄。然而，关于人类端粒与年龄之间的定量关系却知之甚少。本研究的目的是调查人类外周血白细胞（PBLs）中端粒长度与年龄、性别和种族的相关变化。通过Southern印迹法评估端粒长度随年龄的变化。结果显示，人类PBLs中的端粒以年龄依赖的方式缩短（r = -0.913，P < 0.01）。根据端粒缩短情况估算年龄的公式为Y = -16.539X + 236.287（Y：年龄，岁；X：平均TRF长度，kb）。我们分析了男性和女性的平均TRF长度，发现男性的端粒比女性短。此外，我们比较了中国藏族和汉族人群的TRF长度，发现两个群体之间的端粒长度没有差异。我们得出结论，根据PBLs中端粒缩短情况估算人类年龄是一种新方法，尤其是在没有形态学信息的情况下，此外，基于端粒缩短进行年龄估算时必须考虑性别因素。
