IMR Press / FBL / Volume 13 / Issue 8 / DOI: 10.2741/2901

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Studying telomeres in a longitudinal population based study
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1 Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
2 Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2008, 13(8), 2960–2970; https://doi.org/10.2741/2901
Published: 1 January 2008
Abstract

Telomeres, the termini of linear chromosomes, consist of large but variable numbers of DNA oligomer repeats embedded in a nucleoprotein complex. In humans, telomere length (TL) is largely genetically determined but also featured by an age dependent attrition. TL has therefore been put forward as a marker for biological aging and was also reported to be associated with aging diseases such as cardiovascular disease. However it remains unclear whether the biomarker value in a particular disease depends on shorter TL at birth or rather if it's a mere reflection of an accelerated telomere attrition during lifetime, or else, if it is a combination of both. While the importance of telomere attrition is supported by cross-sectional evidence associating shorter telomeres with oxidative stress and inflammation, longitudinal studies are required to accurately assess telomere attrition and its presumed link with accelerated aging. In this review we present different models for the biomarker value of TL and discuss the theoretical and methodological considerations of studying TL in a longitudinal population study with a special emphasis on cardiovascular disease.

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