Aging-related alterations of subtelomeric methylation in sarcoidosis patients

Telomeres in somatic cells become shorter with aging, and the shortening is accelerated by pathophysiological conditions. Telomere shortening can be influenced by subtelomeric DNA methylation. The telomere length and subtelomeric methylation status in peripheral leukocytes were compared in healthy controls and sarcoidosis patients. The sarcoidosis patients revealed shorter telomeres and a faster attrition of telomere shortening in comparison with healthy controls. Both healthy controls and sarcoidosis patients showed that long telomeres (>9.4 kb) decrease and short telomeres ( Key Words: Sarcoidosis--DNA methylation--Subtelomere--Telomere--Aging.