Estimating Age From a Drop of Blood

Researchers at the Erasmus MC, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, have discovered a method to estimate a person’s age from a drop of blood. Previous attempts at developing molecular determination of age, such as measuring accumulation of mitochondrial DNA deletions or on telomere shortening, have shown limited accuracy or technical problems. In the current study, the researchers used T-cell DNA rearrangements to estimate age. T-cells develop their immune capabilities while they reside in the thymus. During this process, T-cell receptor DNA sequences undergo a rearrangement process, in which parts of the DNA are deleted and subsequently circulate as signal joint TCR excision circles (sjTRECs). With increasing age, the number of sjTRECs declines, which is the biological phenomenon that was used to estimate age. The new method could be used for criminal investigations, disaster victim identification or in anthropological studies. The findings were published in the journal Current Biology.
Press release: Estimating age using a drop of blood…
Article: Estimating human age from T-cell DNA rearrangements…