{"doi":"10.1038/s41598-021-84728-2","title":"Telomeres and replicative cellular aging of the human placenta and chorioamniotic membranes","abstract":"Recent hypotheses propose that the human placenta and chorioamniotic membranes (CAMs) experience telomere length (TL)-mediated senescence. These hypotheses are based on mean TL (mTL) measurements, but replicative senescence is triggered by short and dysfunctional telomeres, not mTL. We measured short telomeres by a vanguard method, the Telomere shortest length assay, and telomere-dysfunction-induced DNA damage foci (TIF) in placentas and CAMs between 18-week gestation and at full-term. Both the placenta and CAMs showed a buildup of short telomeres and TIFs, but not shortening of mTL from 18-weeks to full-term. In the placenta, TIFs correlated with short telomeres but not mTL. CAMs of preterm birth pregnancies with intra-amniotic infection showed shorter mTL and increased proportions of short telomeres. We conclude that the placenta and probably the CAMs undergo TL-mediated replicative aging. Further research is warranted whether TL-mediated replicative aging plays a role in all preterm births.","journal":"Scientific Reports","year":2021,"id":179258,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":18,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9693,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":726687,"name":"Mark Simpson","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":726688,"name":"Krunal Patel","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":280708,"name":"Simon Verhulst","orcid":"0000-0002-1143-6868","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":279412,"name":"Jungsik Noh","orcid":"0000-0003-1823-8589","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":726689,"name":"Natalie Roche","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":726077,"name":"Debra S. Heller","orcid":"0000-0002-8378-4642","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":726078,"name":"George Guirguis","orcid":"0000-0003-2049-387X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":89515,"name":"Jerry W. Shay","orcid":"0000-0001-5052-0627","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":570738,"name":"Utz Herbig","orcid":"0000-0001-6917-535X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226941,"name":"Abraham Aviv","orcid":"0000-0002-7441-0227","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226940,"name":"Tsung‐Po Lai","orcid":"0000-0001-7315-0200","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":37,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:47:44.875897Z","pmid":"33664422","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}