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Telomere lengths in human oocytes, cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts

Telomeres are repeated sequences that protect the ends of chromosomes and harbour DNA repair proteins. Telomeres shorten during each cell division in the absence of telomerase. When telomere length becomes critically short, cell senescence occurs. Telomere length therefore reflects both cellular age...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Turner, S., Wong, H.P., Rai, J., Hartshorne, G.M.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2930518/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20573647
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molehr/gaq048
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author Turner, S.
Wong, H.P.
Rai, J.
Hartshorne, G.M.
author_facet Turner, S.
Wong, H.P.
Rai, J.
Hartshorne, G.M.
author_sort Turner, S.
collection PubMed
description Telomeres are repeated sequences that protect the ends of chromosomes and harbour DNA repair proteins. Telomeres shorten during each cell division in the absence of telomerase. When telomere length becomes critically short, cell senescence occurs. Telomere length therefore reflects both cellular ageing and capacity for division. We have measured telomere length in human germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes and preimplantation embryos, by quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization (Q-FISH), providing baseline data towards our hypothesis that telomere length is a marker of embryo quality. The numbers of fluorescent foci suggest that extensive clustering of telomeres occurs in mature GV stage oocytes, and in preimplantation embryos. When calculating average telomere length by assuming that each signal presents one telomere, the calculated telomere length decreased from the oocyte to the cleavage stages, and increased between the cleavage stages and the blastocyst (11.12 versus 8.43 versus 12.22 kb, respectively, P < 0.001). Other methods of calculation, based upon expected maximum and minimum numbers of telomeres, confirm that telomere length in blastocysts is significantly longer than cleavage stages. Individual blastomeres within an embryo showed substantial variation in calculated average telomere length. This study implies that telomere length changes according to the stage of preimplantation embryo development.
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spelling pubmed-29305182010-09-01 Telomere lengths in human oocytes, cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts Turner, S. Wong, H.P. Rai, J. Hartshorne, G.M. Mol Hum Reprod Articles Telomeres are repeated sequences that protect the ends of chromosomes and harbour DNA repair proteins. Telomeres shorten during each cell division in the absence of telomerase. When telomere length becomes critically short, cell senescence occurs. Telomere length therefore reflects both cellular ageing and capacity for division. We have measured telomere length in human germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes and preimplantation embryos, by quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization (Q-FISH), providing baseline data towards our hypothesis that telomere length is a marker of embryo quality. The numbers of fluorescent foci suggest that extensive clustering of telomeres occurs in mature GV stage oocytes, and in preimplantation embryos. When calculating average telomere length by assuming that each signal presents one telomere, the calculated telomere length decreased from the oocyte to the cleavage stages, and increased between the cleavage stages and the blastocyst (11.12 versus 8.43 versus 12.22 kb, respectively, P < 0.001). Other methods of calculation, based upon expected maximum and minimum numbers of telomeres, confirm that telomere length in blastocysts is significantly longer than cleavage stages. Individual blastomeres within an embryo showed substantial variation in calculated average telomere length. This study implies that telomere length changes according to the stage of preimplantation embryo development. Oxford University Press 2010-09 2010-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC2930518/ /pubmed/20573647 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molehr/gaq048 Text en © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Articles
Turner, S.
Wong, H.P.
Rai, J.
Hartshorne, G.M.
Telomere lengths in human oocytes, cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts
title Telomere lengths in human oocytes, cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts
title_full Telomere lengths in human oocytes, cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts
title_fullStr Telomere lengths in human oocytes, cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts
title_full_unstemmed Telomere lengths in human oocytes, cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts
title_short Telomere lengths in human oocytes, cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts
title_sort telomere lengths in human oocytes, cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2930518/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20573647
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molehr/gaq048
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