Telomeres are formed of a tandem repeat DNA sequence (5′-TTAGGG-3′) and located at the end of chromosomes. Their task is to protect chromosomes from endonuclease degradation and maintain genome stability. Sufficient telomere length is essential for normal cellular function because otherwise chromosome instability, cell apoptosis and cellular dysfunction may occur. Telomere length is a good marker of cellular aging and replicative capacity. Spontaneous termination of pregnancy is a common complication during pregnancy and understanding telomere dynamics could provide insight into its causes. In this research, we studied functional single nucleotide polymorphisms using the qPCR method and compared the relative telomere length in chorionic villus samples from cases of spontaneous pregnancy loss compared to a normal pregnancy control group. Our results revealed 3.27 times longer telomeres in the group of spontaneous pregnancy loss, which was in contrast to our hypothesis, that shorter telomeres are characteristic of spontaneous abortion. Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms showed statistically significant predominance of allele C rs10936599 (TERC) and allele C rs2736100 (TERT) in the group of spontaneous abortion, both of which are also associated with longer telomeres according to the results of some previous studies. Our study, as one of the first in this field, made a significant contribution to research in this field, and for a definitive connection between telomere length and spontaneous pregnancy terminations, additional studies are needed that will include more samples and different populations.
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