We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
A longitudinal study of X-inactivation ratio in human females.
- Authors
Sandovici, Ionel; Naumova, Anna; Leppert, Mark; Linares, Yendi; Sapienza, Carmen
- Abstract
We investigated the effect of aging on X chromosome inactivation by performing a longitudinal study in a population of 178 normal females. We examined X-inactivation ratios (fraction of cells with the same X chromosome active) in two sets of peripheral blood DNA samples collected about two decades apart. We observed a strong correlation between the ratios of individual females at the two time points and found no significant difference between the two sets of measurements. These observations indicate that aging, per se (as opposed to being “aged”), has little effect on X-inactivation. However, we also found that several females who were older than 60 years of age at the time of the first measurement acquired significant changes in the X-inactivation ratio. We speculate that, if X-inactivation skewing is a frequently acquired trait in older females, it is acquired as the result of a discontinuous or catastrophic process and is not the result of constant selection for or against hematopoietic stem cells with a particular X chromosome active.
- Subjects
X chromosome; FEMALES; DNA; BLOOD cells
- Publication
Human Genetics, 2004, Vol 115, Issue 5, p387
- ISSN
0340-6717
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00439-004-1177-8