Assessment of telomere length during post-natal period in offspring produced by a bull and its fibroblast derived clone

Objective: To investigate the telomere length in bovine offspring produced by a cloned and control bull, and the telomerase activity in embryos produced with the same technology. Methods: Five daughters of a control and five daughters of a bull cloned using a fibroblast of the control were produced by IVF using sperm of the two bulls. Blood samples of the offspring were collected at 2, 6, and 12 months of age and the relative telomere length (RTL) was assessed by flow cytometry. At same time the body growth, hematological profile, and clinical biochemistry of the same progeny was extensively surveyed, and results have been reported in a previous work. Thereafter, the telomerase activity was assessed using a real time PCR quantitative assay in groups of embryos produced with the same technology. Results: The offspring of the clone exhibited a modest, but significant (P