Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Centre, The Netherlands.
Age Ageing. 2011 Jul;40(4):494-500. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afr048. Epub 2011 May 27.
reduced telomere length in blood cells has been associated with increased risk of multiple age-related diseases and is widely regarded as a general biomarker of ageing. Therefore, it is important to know both the extent and limitations of this association. We investigated the relation between telomere length and anaemia in two independent cohorts, with the prior expectation of adding anaemia to the list of conditions for which telomere reduction is a risk factor.
the present study is embedded in the Newcastle 85-plus Study and Leiden 85-plus Study, two population-based studies of inhabitants of Newcastle and North Tyneside, UK (n = 749) and Leiden, the Netherlands (n = 658) aged 85 and over. High-molecular-weight DNA was isolated from full fresh blood (Newcastle) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells samples (Leiden). Telomere length was measured as abundance of telomeric template versus a single gene by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Anaemia was defined according to World Health Organization criteria.
in both studies, no differences in median telomere length were observed between participants with anaemia and participants without anaemia (Newcastle: 2,846 bp (interquartile range (IQR) 2,433-3,630) versus 2,920 bp (IQR 2,425-3,570), P = 0.63; Leiden: 4,136 bp (IQR 3,879-4,428) versus 4,167 bp (IQR 3,893-4,501), P = 0.41). Telomere length also did not correlate with any other haematological parameter in both men and women.
in contrast to other age-related diseases, telomere length is not associated with anaemia or any other haematological parameter in older individuals in the general population.
血液中端粒长度的缩短与多种与年龄相关的疾病的风险增加有关，并且被广泛认为是衰老的一般生物标志物。因此，了解这种关联的程度和局限性非常重要。我们在两个独立的队列中研究了端粒长度与贫血之间的关系，预期端粒缩短会成为贫血等疾病的风险因素。
本研究嵌入了纽卡斯尔 85 岁以上研究和莱顿 85 岁以上研究，这是两项针对英国纽卡斯尔和泰恩河畔北泰因赛德（n = 749）和荷兰莱顿（n = 658）85 岁及以上居民的基于人群的研究。从全血（纽卡斯尔）和外周血单核细胞样本（莱顿）中提取高分子量 DNA。通过实时定量聚合酶链反应，以端粒模板与单个基因的丰度来测量端粒长度。根据世界卫生组织标准定义贫血。
在两项研究中，贫血参与者和无贫血参与者的中位端粒长度没有差异（纽卡斯尔：2846 bp（四分位距（IQR）2433-3630）与 2920 bp（IQR 2425-3570），P = 0.63；莱顿：4136 bp（IQR 3879-4428）与 4167 bp（IQR 3893-4501），P = 0.41）。端粒长度也与男性和女性的任何其他血液学参数均无相关性。
与其他与年龄相关的疾病相反，在普通人群中，端粒长度与老年人的贫血或任何其他血液学参数均无关。
