Telomere length is closely related to mortality
Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center and the University of California at San Francisco have identified a pronounced relationship between mortality and the length of telomeres - the end sections of chromosomes.
Although telomere length reduction is considered a biomarker of aging, researchers have not yet been able to find out whether they play a direct causal role in the development of age-related health problems and mortality, or are only a sign of aging.
The prospective study conducted by the authors involved 100,000 Kaiser Permanente patients belonging to different ethnic groups, whose average age was 63 years. All participants submitted saliva samples for DNA extraction and agreed to access electronic medical records. Their DNA was analyzed for the presence of 765,000 markers, and the data obtained was compared with the information contained in the case histories.
The results of the analysis showed that a pronounced relationship between telomere length and mortality not only exists, but also persists after adjusting the results for demographic and behavioral parameters such as education level, smoking and alcohol consumption. Detailed data on these parameters were collected two years prior to the collection of saliva samples, which provided a unique opportunity to study the epidemiology of telomeres and aging.
According to the authors, as expected, an inverse relationship was found between telomere length and age. It was shown that women are characterized by longer telomeres than men, with the exception of only young adults. Therefore, all calculations were made taking into account factors such as gender and age of patients.
The researchers also confirmed the previously revealed pattern, according to which the telomere length of representatives of the African-American population is significantly longer than that of representatives of all other ethnic groups. Americans of European descent, Latinos and Asians have almost identical telomeres in length.
Moreover, positive correlations were found between telomere length and factors such as education level and body mass index, as well as negative correlations with smoking and alcohol consumption. At the same time, the relationship demonstrated by other authors between the length of telomeres and the presence of a history of deep depression or stress-related mental disorders was refuted.
The results of the work were presented on November 8 at the annual congress of the American Community of Human Genetics held in San Francisco: The Kaiser Permanente/UCSF Genetic Epidemiology Research Study on Adult Health and Aging: A genome-wide association study of telomere length in a multi-ethnic cohort of 100,000 subjects.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of ScienceDaily:
Significant Relationship Between Mortality and Telomere Length Discovered.
20.11.2012