Telomere Diagnostics

The ageing process progresses at different rates of intensity in specific individuals, and as a result, the biological age of the body does not correspond to the chronological age in years. Above all, it is the damaging consequences of external influences, which are primarily due to individual lifestyle in adulthood, that accelerate ageing and lead to typical age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or dementia. 

The telomeres in the leukocytes represent a biomarker, the length of which can be determined for an assessment of the biological age and specifically the immunological performance of the body. Telomeres are special structures on the terminal ends of linear chromosomes, which consist of an ever repeating DNA sequence of the same code and special DNA-binding proteins. The most important function of telomeres is to preserve the integrity and stability of chromosomes. However, the length of telomeres is also an indicator of the "wear" of the body caused by cell damage and stress, as every cell division, which is a necessary process to limit damage and repair tissues, shortens the telomeres by a few sequence units. Due to the resulting decreased division capacity, rapidly advancing telomere shortening of the leukocytes is associated with a decrease in the performance of the immune cells (immune senescence). Once a critical telomere length is reached, the affected cells enter a dormant state, stop growing completely or die and therefore lose all functionality.

Our laboratory applies the molecular biological technology of the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) to determine biological age using telomere length measurement in leukocytes (Q-PCR). First, the genomic DNA of the peripheral leukocytes is extracted from a blood sample. As a measure for the relative mean telomere length, the ratio (T/S ratio) of variable telomere length and constant length of a single-copy gene present in the genome is then determined as the standard reference. The individual test results of a patient are then compared with the age-related data in a database, followed by classification of telomere length in comparison to clinical averages.