Tsatsakis Aristidis, Tsoukalas Dimitrios, Fragkiadaki Persefoni, Vakonaki Elena, Tzatzarakis Manolis, Sarandi Evangelia, Nikitovic Dragana, Tsilimidos Gerasimos, Alegakis Athanasios K
Laboratory of Toxicology, Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
Metabolomic Medicine, Health Clinics for Autoimmune and Chronic Diseases, Athens, Greece.
Front Genet. 2019 Feb 19;10:84. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2019.00084. eCollection 2019.
Telomere length (TL) is causally related to aging and several age-related diseases. Specifically, the abundance of short telomeres and the rate of telomere shortening are strong determinants of cell homeostasis. Thus, tools for analyzing and manipulating TL data can vastly improve research focused on aging. Aim: In this study, we developed a semi-automated worksheet, BIOTEL, to generate individual and group TL statistics and provide a crude estimation of biological age. Data from the Telomere Length Database Project (TLDP) were implemented to the spreadsheet to produce TL statistics. 150 participants were included, and their age was from 21 to 82 years, and the sex distribution ratio was 52.3%: 47.7% (male: female). Initially, we analyzed the fluorescence intensities of telomeres that were measured on metaphase spread leukocytes using three-dimensional (3D) quantitative-fluorescent hybridization (Q-FISH) procedures (3D DNA FISH) with a (C3TA2)3 peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probe. Raw data of fluorescence intensities, demographic data and medical records from the participants were imported into the worksheet. Basic statistical analyses of TL data were provided through BIOTEL, including TL percentiles, specialized charts for TL distribution including the percentage of critically short telomeres (< 3,000 kilobases), individual telomere profiles, and graphs of biological age vs. chronological age. BIOTEL ver. 2.4 is a functional semi-automated worksheet that calculates a wide range of TL statistics, thus a useful tool with applications in research of telomeres and biological age estimation.
端粒长度（TL）与衰老及多种与年龄相关的疾病存在因果关系。具体而言，短端粒的丰度以及端粒缩短的速率是细胞稳态的重要决定因素。因此，用于分析和处理TL数据的工具能够极大地改善针对衰老的研究。目的：在本研究中，我们开发了一个半自动工作表BIOTEL，用于生成个体和群体的TL统计数据，并对生物学年龄进行粗略估计。将来自端粒长度数据库项目（TLDP）的数据应用于电子表格以生成TL统计数据。纳入了150名参与者，他们的年龄在21岁至82岁之间，性别分布比例为52.3%:47.7%（男性:女性）。最初，我们使用三维（3D）定量荧光杂交（Q-FISH）程序（3D DNA FISH）和（C3TA2）3肽核酸（PNA）探针，分析了在中期扩展白细胞上测量的端粒荧光强度。参与者的荧光强度原始数据、人口统计学数据和医疗记录被导入工作表。BIOTEL提供了TL数据的基本统计分析，包括TL百分位数、TL分布的专门图表，包括极短端粒（<3000千碱基）的百分比、个体端粒图谱以及生物学年龄与实际年龄的图表。BIOTEL ver. 2.4是一个功能齐全的半自动工作表，可计算广泛的TL统计数据，因此是在端粒研究和生物学年龄估计中有用的工具。
