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Ngwa NE, Matsha TE, Lombard C, Levitt N, Sobngwi E, Kengne AP, Peer N. Cardiometabolic profile and leukocyte telomere length in a Black South African population. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3323. [PMID: 35228641 PMCID: PMC8885820 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07328-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 01/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractSeveral studies have reported a possible association between leucocyte telomere length (LTL) and cardio-metabolic diseases (CMDs). However, studies investigating such association are lacking in South Africa despite having a very high prevalence of CMDs. We investigated the association between LTL and CMD risk profile in a black South African population. This was a cross-sectional study with participants > 21 years of age and residing in five townships in Cape Town. CMD markers were compared between men and women and across quartiles of LTL. Linear and logistic regressions relate increasing quartile and Log10LTL with CMD risk profile, with appropriate adjustment. Among 676-participants, diabetes, obesity and hypertension prevalence were 11.5%, 23.1% and 47.5%. Waist-circumference, hip-circumference and highly sensitive c-reactive protein values were significantly higher in women (all p < 0.001), while HDL-C (p = 0.023), creatinine (p = 0.005) and gamma glutamyl transferase (p < 0.001) values were higher in men. In age, sex and BMI adjusted linear regression model, Log10 of LTL was associated with low HDL-C (beta = 0.221; p = 0.041) while logistic regression showed a significant association between Log10LTL and prevalent dyslipidaemia characterised by high LDL-C. In this population, the relationship between LTL and CMD is weak given its association with only HDL-C and LDL-C.
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Rej PH, Bondy MH, Lin J, Prather AA, Kohrt BA, Worthman CM, Eisenberg DTA. Telomere length analysis from minimally-invasively collected samples: Methods development and meta-analysis of the validity of different sampling techniques: American Journal of Human Biology. Am J Hum Biol 2020; 33:e23410. [PMID: 32189404 DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2019] [Revised: 02/07/2020] [Accepted: 02/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Telomeres are the protective caps of chromosomes. They shorten with cell replication, age, and possibly environmental stimuli (eg, infection and stress). Short telomere length (TL) predicts subsequent worse health. Although venous whole blood (VWB) is most commonly used for TL measurement, other, more minimally invasive, sampling techniques are becoming increasingly common due to their field-friendliness, allowing for feasible measurement in low-resource contexts. We conducted statistical validation work for measuring TL in dried blood spots (DBS) and incorporated our results into a meta-analysis evaluating minimally invasive sampling techniques to measure TL. METHODS We isolated DNA extracts from DBS using a modified extraction protocol and tested how they endured different shipping conditions and long-term cryostorage. We then included our in-house DBS TL validation statistics (correlation values with VWB TL and age) in a series of meta-analyses of results from 24 other studies that published similar associations for values between TL measured in DBS, saliva, and buccal cells. RESULTS Our modified DBS extraction technique produced DNA yields that were roughly twice as large as previously recorded. Partially extracted DBS DNA was stable for 7 days at room temperature, and still provided reliable TL measurements, as determined by external validation statistics. In our meta-analysis, DBS TL had the highest external validity, followed by saliva, and then buccal cells-possibly reflecting similarities/differences in cellular composition vs VWB. CONCLUSIONS DBS DNA is the best proxy for VWB from the three minimally-invasively specimen types evaluated and can be used to expand TL research to diverse settings and populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter H Rej
- Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Madison H Bondy
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Jue Lin
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Aric A Prather
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Brandon A Kohrt
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Services, George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Carol M Worthman
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Dan T A Eisenberg
- Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.,Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, Seattle, Washington, USA
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Association between leucocyte telomere length and cardiovascular disease in a large general population in the United States. Sci Rep 2020; 10:80. [PMID: 31919463 PMCID: PMC6952450 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-57050-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2019] [Accepted: 12/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Leucocyte telomere length (LTL) has been reported to be linked to ageing, cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to explore the association between LTL and CVD risk in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Complex associations, including nonlinearity and interaction, were also examined. A total of 7,378 subjects from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2002 were collected. Telomere length was detected from DNA samples and expressed as the mean T/S ratio (telomere repeats per single-copy gene). We performed multiple logistic regression models and interactive analysis to explore the associations between LTL and CVD risk by adjusting for potential confounders. We also performed a sensitivity analysis to investigate the robustness of our results. Among all participants, LTL was associated with the risk of CVD (OR = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.63~0.98, P = 0.033) in a linear manner rather than in a nonlinear manner (P = 0.874). Interaction effects of LTL with both education (P = 0.017) and hypertension (P = 0.007) were observed. Furthermore, using subgroup analyses, protective effects of LTL on CVD risk were found in females and in individuals who were college graduates or above, had serum cotinine >10 ng/ml, did not have hypertension, or had normal white blood cell levels. LTL is linearly inversely associated with CVD risk in the general population of the United States.
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Needham BL, Salerno S, Roberts E, Boss J, Allgood KL, Mukherjee B. Do black/white differences in telomere length depend on socioeconomic status? BIODEMOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL BIOLOGY 2019; 65:287-312. [PMID: 33243026 PMCID: PMC7703670 DOI: 10.1080/19485565.2020.1765734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
Social and economic disadvantage are hypothesized to increase the risk of disease and death via accelerated biological aging. Given that US blacks are socially and economically disadvantaged relative to whites, health disparities scholars expected that blacks would have shorter telomere length-a biomarker of cell aging-than whites. Yet the majority of studies have found that blacks have longer telomere length than whites. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 3,761; 28.3% non-Hispanic black, 71.7% non-Hispanic white), we found that leukocyte telomere length was 4.00% (95% CI: 1.12%, 6.87%) longer among blacks compared to whites in the full sample, but differences were greatest among those with lower SES (5.66%; 95% CI: 0.10%, 10.32%), intermediate among those with middle SES (4.14%; 95% CI: 0.05%, 8.24%), and smallest among those with higher SES (2.33%; 95% CI: -3.02%, 7.67%). These results challenge purely genetic explanations for race differences in telomere length and point to a potential social-environmental cause of longer telomere length in US blacks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Belinda L. Needham
- Department of Epidemiology and Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, University of Michigan
| | | | | | | | - Kristi L. Allgood
- Department of Epidemiology and Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, University of Michigan
| | - Bhramar Mukherjee
- Department of Biostatistics, Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan
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Willis M, Reid SN, Calvo E, Staudinger UM, Factor-Litvak P. A scoping systematic review of social stressors and various measures of telomere length across the life course. Ageing Res Rev 2018; 47:89-104. [PMID: 30048807 PMCID: PMC6195444 DOI: 10.1016/j.arr.2018.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2018] [Revised: 07/10/2018] [Accepted: 07/18/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Numerous studies examine the relationship between social stressors and telomere length (TL). Beyond considering methods and major findings, this scoping systematic review takes a novel approach as it groups studies according to the types of social stressor considered and by age groups. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Scopus. We included all English-language human subject research articles that modeled any measure of TL as a dependent variable and exposure to a social stressor as an independent variable. For the sample of 105 articles, we summarized methods and findings by type of social stressor (socioeconomic stressors, stressful life events, work-related stressors, and neighborhood stressors) and by age of the study population (infants/children, middle-aged adults, older adults, and mixed samples of middle-aged and older adults). We found more variation in TL measurement methodology in studies of infants/children and older adults than in studies focusing on middle-aged adults. The most consistent finding was a relationship between early-life stressors and shorter TL. Work and neighborhood stressors, and older populations, are currently understudied. Across all stressors, limited evidence suggests that the stress-TL relationship may be moderated by characteristics such as age, sex, and race/ethnicity. We conclude with specific suggestions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margaret Willis
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, United States.
| | - Shaina N Reid
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, United States
| | - Esteban Calvo
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, United States; Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University, United States; Society and Health Research Center, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad Mayor, Chile; Laboratory on Aging and Social Epidemiology, Universidad Mayor, Chile
| | - Ursula M Staudinger
- Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University, United States; Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, United States
| | - Pam Factor-Litvak
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, United States
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Affiliation(s)
- Sasha A Fahme
- From the Center for Global Health, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY (S.A.F., R.P.)
- Department of Internal Medicine, Weill Bugando School of Medicine, Mwanza, Tanzania (S.A.F., R.P.)
| | - Gerald S Bloomfield
- Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC (G.S.B.)
| | - Robert Peck
- From the Center for Global Health, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY (S.A.F., R.P.)
- Department of Internal Medicine, Weill Bugando School of Medicine, Mwanza, Tanzania (S.A.F., R.P.)
- Mwanza Interventions Trial Unit, Tanzania (R.P.)
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Jones HJ, Janson SL, Lee KA. Leukocyte Telomere Length in Postmenopausal Women. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs 2017; 46:567-575. [PMID: 28535365 PMCID: PMC5609731 DOI: 10.1016/j.jogn.2017.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/01/2017] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To compare leukocyte telomere length (LTL) by race and describe demographic, health, and psychosocial factors associated with LTL in postmenopausal women. DESIGN Descriptive study with comparative analyses and correlations. SETTING Data were collected at the University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco Clinical and Translational Science Institute. PARTICIPANTS Thirty-nine African American and White postmenopausal women between 58 and 65 years of age (mean age = 61.3 ± 1.83 years). METHODS Measures included demographics, blood pressure, anthropometrics, scores on the Perceived Stress Scale and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression, and blood samples for LTL. RESULTS African American women (n = 14) had greater PSS-10 and CES-D scores, greater blood pressure, and greater body mass index than White women (n = 25; p < .05), but LTL did not significantly differ between the two groups. Age was inversely related to LTL (r = -.355, p < .05). After age and race were controlled, fewer children (p = .005) and greater perceived stress (p = .036) were related to shorter LTL. CONCLUSION Findings from this small sample support the association between age and LTL. The association between perceived stress, number of children, and shorter LTL in postmenopausal women requires further research and replication of findings in a larger, more diverse sample.
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Abstract
A meta-analysis published in this issue of Psychosomatic Medicine provides convincing evidence that certain psychiatric populations have shorter telomeres than nonpsychiatric controls, in accord with the strong evidence linking psychiatric disorders with premature mortality. After addressing the clinical significance of shorter telomeres, this editorial describes mechanistic pathways that lead to telomere shortening. Additionally, two other novel methods for measuring biological markers of accelerated aging are briefly discussed: DNA methylation and cellular senescence based on p16. These innovative approaches could be used to confirm and extend our understanding of psychiatric patients' increased health and mortality risks.
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Mathur MB, Epel E, Kind S, Desai M, Parks CG, Sandler DP, Khazeni N. Perceived stress and telomere length: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and methodologic considerations for advancing the field. Brain Behav Immun 2016; 54:158-169. [PMID: 26853993 PMCID: PMC5590630 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2016.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 169] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2015] [Revised: 01/23/2016] [Accepted: 02/03/2016] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Psychological stress contributes to numerous diseases and may do so in part through damage to telomeres, protective non-coding segments on the ends of chromosomes. OBJECTIVE We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the association between self-reported, perceived psychological stress (PS) and telomere length (TL). DATA SOURCES We searched 3 databases (PubMed, PsycInfo, and Scopus), completed manual searches of published and unpublished studies, and contacted all study authors to obtain potentially relevant data. STUDY SELECTION Two independent reviewers assessed studies for original research measuring (but not necessarily reporting the correlation between) PS and TL in human subjects. 23 studies met inclusion criteria; 22 (totaling 8948 subjects) could be meta-analyzed. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS We assessed study quality using modified MINORS criteria. Since not all included studies reported PS-TL correlations, we obtained them via direct calculation from author-provided data (7 studies), contact with authors (14 studies), or extraction from the published article (1 study). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES We conducted random-effects meta-analysis on our primary outcome, the age-adjusted PS-TL correlation. We investigated potential confounders and moderators (sex, life stress exposure, and PS measure validation) via post hoc subset analyses and meta-regression. RESULTS Increased PS was associated with a very small decrease in TL (n=8724 total; r=-0.06; 95% CI: -0.10, -0.008; p=0.01; α=0.025), adjusting for age. This relationship was similar between sexes and within studies using validated measures of PS, and marginally (nonsignificantly) stronger among samples recruited for stress exposure (r=-0.13; vs. general samples: b=-0.11; 95% CI: -0.27, 0.01; p=0.05; α=0.013). Publication bias may exist; correcting for its effects attenuated the relationship. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Our analysis finds a very small, statistically significant relationship between increased PS (as measured over the past month) and decreased TL that may reflect publication bias, although fully parsing the effects of publication bias from other sample-size correlates is challenging, as discussed. The association may be stronger with known major stressors and is similar in magnitude to that noted between obesity and TL. All included studies used single measures of short-term stress; the literature suggests long-term chronic stress may have a larger cumulative effect. Future research should assess for potential confounders and use longitudinal, multidimensional models of stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maya B. Mathur
- Quantitative Sciences Unit, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA,To whom correspondence should be addressed: Maya B. Mathur, Quantitative Sciences Unit, c/o Inna Sayfer, Stanford University, 1070 Arastradero Rd., Palo Alto, CA, 94305, t: 650-863-2384;
| | - Elissa Epel
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Shelley Kind
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Manisha Desai
- Quantitative Sciences Unit, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Christine G. Parks
- Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Dale P. Sandler
- Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Nayer Khazeni
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA,Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
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