Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
NHMRC CTC, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
Gene. 2019 Apr 30;694:97-101. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2019.01.017. Epub 2019 Feb 7.
Previous studies indicate that low birth weight and exposure to maternal stress during pregnancy may result in shortened telomeres in infants. Shorter telomere length has in turn been linked with accelerated ageing and with age-related diseases. This study aimed to investigate the association between pregnancy and birth factors and relative telomere length in offspring at 11 years of age.
Participants were aged 11 years enrolled in the Auckland Birthweight Collaborative Study at birth (n = 380). Half of the children were born small for gestational age (SGA = birthweight ≤ 10th percentile) and half were appropriate for gestational age (AGA = birthweight > 10th percentile). Maternal stress during pregnancy was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale. Relative leukocyte telomere length (RTL) in leukocytes was measured at 11 years of age using quantitative real-time PCR.
RTL was normally distributed (mean = 3.78, SD = 1.05). There were no significant associations between RTL at age 11 years and birthweight, sex, maternal smoking, maternal stress during pregnancy or maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index.
At age 11 years, RTL did not differ between children by birthweight or pregnancy-related stressors. Further telomere-related studies in newborns, children and adolescents are merited to increase knowledge of potential telomere modulating factors.
先前的研究表明，低出生体重和孕期母亲压力暴露可能导致婴儿端粒缩短。端粒缩短与加速衰老和与年龄相关的疾病有关。本研究旨在探讨妊娠和分娩因素与 11 岁儿童相对端粒长度之间的关系。
参与者在出生时（n=380）即被纳入奥克兰出生体重协作研究，并在 11 岁时进行研究。一半儿童出生时为小于胎龄儿（SGA=出生体重≤第 10 百分位），一半为适于胎龄儿（AGA=出生体重>第 10 百分位）。孕期母亲压力通过感知压力量表进行评估。11 岁时使用实时定量 PCR 测量白细胞相对端粒长度（RTL）。
RTL 呈正态分布（平均值=3.78，标准差=1.05）。11 岁时的 RTL 与出生体重、性别、母亲吸烟、孕期母亲压力或母亲孕前体重指数之间无显著相关性。
在 11 岁时，根据出生体重或与妊娠相关的压力因素，儿童的 RTL 没有差异。进一步对新生儿、儿童和青少年的端粒相关研究值得开展，以增加对潜在端粒调节因素的了解。
