BACKGROUND: Shorter leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is a promising marker of biological ageing. It is predicted by cumulative adverse conditions throughout life course, but few studies have data from the prenatal period when most developmental processes and cell replication take place. We studied whether body size at birth and underlying factors including severely preterm birth predict LTL in adult life. METHODS: We used data from following three cohorts: (i) 1894 subjects (age: 56-69 years) from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study (HBCS), representing normal variation in fetal growth; (ii) the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults encompassing 164 subjects born preterm at very low birthweight (<1500 g; representing extreme pre- and neonatal conditions) and 170 term-born controls (18-27 years) and (iii) 248 twins (23-31 years) from the FinnTwin16 cohort, allowing comparisons between twin pairs. Relative telomere length was measured from leucocytes by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Shorter LTL was associated with higher age in HBCS and among men in the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults and with lower childhood socio-economic status in HBCS and FinnTwin16. LTL was not associated with weight, length or gestational age at birth in any cohort. LTL was similar in very-low-birthweight and control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: LTL is unlikely to be a useful marker of a mechanism linking body size at birth with individual differences in ageing in the general population.
BACKGROUND: Shorter leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is a promising marker of biological ageing. It is predicted by cumulative adverse conditions throughout life course, but few studies have data from the prenatal period when most developmental processes and cell replication take place. We studied whether body size at birth and underlying factors including severely preterm birth predict LTL in adult life. METHODS: We used data from following three cohorts: (i) 1894 subjects (age: 56-69 years) from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study (HBCS), representing normal variation in fetal growth; (ii) the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults encompassing 164 subjects born preterm at very low birthweight (<1500 g; representing extreme pre- and neonatal conditions) and 170 term-born controls (18-27 years) and (iii) 248 twins (23-31 years) from the FinnTwin16 cohort, allowing comparisons between twin pairs. Relative telomere length was measured from leucocytes by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Shorter LTL was associated with higher age in HBCS and among men in the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults and with lower childhood socio-economic status in HBCS and FinnTwin16. LTL was not associated with weight, length or gestational age at birth in any cohort. LTL was similar in very-low-birthweight and control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: LTL is unlikely to be a useful marker of a mechanism linking body size at birth with individual differences in ageing in the general population.
Authors: Marij Gielen; Geja J Hageman; Evangelia E Antoniou; Katarina Nordfjall; Massimo Mangino; Muthuswamy Balasubramanyam; Tim de Meyer; Audrey E Hendricks; Erik J Giltay; Steven C Hunt; Jennifer A Nettleton; Klelia D Salpea; Vanessa A Diaz; Ramin Farzaneh-Far; Gil Atzmon; Sarah E Harris; Lifang Hou; David Gilley; Iiris Hovatta; Jeremy D Kark; Hisham Nassar; David J Kurz; Karen A Mather; Peter Willeit; Yun-Ling Zheng; Sofia Pavanello; Ellen W Demerath; Line Rode; Daniel Bunout; Andrew Steptoe; Lisa Boardman; Amelia Marti; Belinda Needham; Wei Zheng; Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman; Andrew J Pellatt; Jaakko Kaprio; Jonathan N Hofmann; Christian Gieger; Giuseppe Paolisso; Jacob B H Hjelmborg; Lisa Mirabello; Teresa Seeman; Jason Wong; Pim van der Harst; Linda Broer; Florian Kronenberg; Barbara Kollerits; Timo Strandberg; Dan T A Eisenberg; Catherine Duggan; Josine E Verhoeven; Roxanne Schaakxs; Raffaela Zannolli; Rosana M R Dos Reis; Fadi J Charchar; Maciej Tomaszewski; Ute Mons; Ilja Demuth; Andrea Elena Iglesias Molli; Guo Cheng; Dmytro Krasnienkov; Bianca D'Antono; Marek Kasielski; Barry J McDonnell; Richard Paul Ebstein; Kristina Sundquist; Guillaume Pare; Michael Chong; Maurice P Zeegers Journal: Am J Clin Nutr Date: 2018-09-01 Impact factor: 7.045
Authors: Erin E Masterson; M Geoffrey Hayes; Christopher W Kuzawa; Nanette R Lee; Dan T A Eisenberg Journal: Am J Hum Biol Date: 2019-08-05 Impact factor: 1.937
Authors: Karri Kaivola; Anna Kiviharju; Lilja Jansson; Ville Rantalainen; Johan G Eriksson; Timo E Strandberg; Hannu Laaksovirta; Alan E Renton; Bryan J Traynor; Liisa Myllykangas; Pentti J Tienari Journal: Neurobiol Aging Date: 2019-03-11 Impact factor: 4.673