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closeA few questions
Posted by dtae on 07 Mar 2013 at 01:37 GMT
This is an important paper -- thank you to the authors for their careful work on it.
A few questions:
- I don't think correlation values between arm EDTA WB & finger EDTA WB is given in the article or in the supplements. If this could be provided it would be helpful to me, and I think other investigators. Other unlisted correlations also might be helpful (or perhaps just post raw data).
- Were dried blood spot cards stored in airtight containers with desiccant packs?
- Why were ASPG and POLG2 single-copy controls used instead of previously validated controls?
- What does T*1000 signify? Multiplying T value by 1000 before dividing by S? If so, why?
Thanks,
Dan
RE: A few questions
dlzanet replied to dtae on 13 Mar 2013 at 22:37 GMT
Dear Dan,
Thank you for your comments. You are correct that we did not include correlations between telomere lengths in different blood draw sites. Pearson’s correlations (R2) are shown in table format below.
R2 P value
Arm EDTA WB vs. Arm EDTA DBS: 0.62 0.002
Arm EDTA WB vs. Finger EDTA WB: 0.58 0.004
Arm EDTA WB vs. Finger EDTA DBS: 0.63 0.01
Arm EDTA WB vs. Direct Finger DBS: 0.62 0.002
Arm EDTA DBS vs. Finger EDTA WB: 0.68 0.001
Arm EDTA DBS vs. Finger EDTA DBS: 0.60 0.01
Arm EDTA DBS vs. Direct Finger DBS: 0.91 <0.0001
Finger EDTA WB vs. Finger EDTA DBS: 0.78 0.002
Finger EDTA WB vs. Direct Finger DBS: 0.64 0.002
Finger EDTA DBS vs. Direct Finger DBS: 0.59 0.02
The dried blood spot cards were dried at room temperature overnight (without airtight container or desiccant packs), then the paper cards were folded and stored in a cardboard box at -80°C.
ASPG is the single copy gene that we use in our laboratory for this and other assays. The main reason for its use in these experiments was convenience as we already had data using this gene.
We measured relative telomere length; the scale of the telomere measure is arbitrary. We multiply our T values by 1000 to get a T/S value above zero that allows for easier descriptive stats and graphical display.
DeAnna