Telomere length measurement by fluorescence in situ hybridization and flow cytometry.

Telomere length is an important measure of cellular differentiation and progression to senescence. Flow cytometric assays for measuring telomere length have become an important adjunct to more laborious Southern blotting methods; telomere length can be estimated with considerable accuracy in small numbers of individual cells by flow cytometry, and can be measured in cell population subsets with simultaneous fluorescent immunophenotyping. In this chapter, we describe the standard flow cytometric assay for measuring telomere length, including the incorporation of fluorochrome-conjugated antibody immunolabeling for measurement in cell subsets.