Aging and Disease Volume 3 (2): 164-170; April 2012 [Epub ahead of print: 2011, 10 December]

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Origianl article

The Subtelomere of Short Telomeres is Hypermethylated in Alzheimer’s Disease

Jing-Zhi Guan^1#, Wei-Ping Guan^2#, Toyoki Maeda^3#*, Naoki Makino³

¹The 309th Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army, Beijing 100091, China

²Nanlou Neurology Department, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China

³Department of Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Geriatric Medicine, Kyushu University Beppu Hospital, Beppu, Oita 874-0838 Japan

^#These authors contributed equally to this article

[Received October 7, 2011; Revised November 30, 2011; Accepted November 30, 2011]

ABSTRACT: Telomere shortening has been reported to be related to oxidative stress (OS) associated with the aging process and aging-associated diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We measured the methylated and non-methylated telomere lengths in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 34 AD patients and 49 healthy controls by a Southern blotting analysis, using methylation-sensitive and -insensitive restriction enzyme isoschizomers, MspI and HpaII. AD patients bore normal mean telomere lengths and had an unchanged distribution of the telomere length in peripheral leukocytes. However, the subtelomeres in the shortest telomeres were relatively more methylated in AD patients of both genders, compared with age-matched controls. We observed that the pathogenesis of AD was associated with the epigenetic condition of the subtelomere, but not on the overall telomere length and distribution. The relative elevation of subtelomeric methylation of short telomeres in peripheral blood leukocytes may be a characteristic of AD. This implies that leukocytes containing short telomeres with less methylated subtelomeres tend to be removed faster from the peripheral blood in AD patients.

*Correspondence should be addressed to:

Dr. Toyoki Maeda

Department of Cardiovascular

Respiratory and Geriatric Medicine

Kyushu University Beppu Hospital

Beppu, Oita, 874-0838

Japan

E-mail: maedat@beppu.kyushu-u.ac.jp