Determination of Telomere Length by the Quantitative Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization (Q-FISH) Method

Telomeres are nucleoprotein complexes located at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes and are shorten with aging or various causes. Shortened telomere plays an important role for chromosomal instability in carcinogenesis, or a number of diseases in relation to aging. FISH using peptide-nucleic acid (PNA) probe is suitable for analyzing telomeres, because telomere is a part of DNA molecule and localized in chromosomal end in loop shape structure (T-loop). We introduce our telomere analysis for tissue sections and cultured cells in this paper. On the tissue sections, we analyze telomere length with telomere intensity to centromere intensity ratio (TCR), centromere as an inner control. In the cultured cells, we analyze telomere lengths on each chromosome with karyotyping. Those Q-FISH methods by PNA probe are an accurate and reliable tool for research on telomere lengths in various conditions in biology.