Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Jan 20;16(1):e0243468. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243468. eCollection 2021.
Leukocyte telomere length is a biomarker of aging-related health risks. Hospitalized preterm infants frequently experience elevated oxidative stress and inflammation, both of which contribute to telomere shortening. Our aim was to examine changes in telomere length during neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization in a cohort of preterm infants <32 weeks' gestation. We conducted a longitudinal study of 10 infants (mean gestational age 27 weeks, range 23.5 to 29, at birth). We isolated DNA from dried blood spots and used Real Time Quantitative PCR to measure relative leukocyte telomere length in triplicate at three time points for each participant. From birth to discharge, infants experienced an average decline in relative telomere length of 0.021 units per week (95% CI -0.040, -0.0020; p = 0.03), after adjustment for gestational age at birth. Our results suggest a measurable decline in telomere length during NICU hospitalization. We speculate that telomere length change may convey information about NICU exposures that carry short- and long-term health risks.
白细胞端粒长度是与衰老相关健康风险的生物标志物。住院早产儿经常经历氧化应激和炎症的增加，这两者都导致端粒缩短。我们的目的是在小于 32 孕周的早产儿队列中检查新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）住院期间端粒长度的变化。我们对 10 名婴儿（平均胎龄 27 周，范围为 23.5 至 29 周，出生时）进行了纵向研究。我们从干血斑中分离 DNA，并使用实时定量 PCR 在每个参与者的三个时间点重复测量相对白细胞端粒长度。从出生到出院，婴儿的相对端粒长度平均每周下降 0.021 个单位（95%CI-0.040，-0.0020；p=0.03），在调整出生时的胎龄后。我们的结果表明，NICU 住院期间端粒长度可测量下降。我们推测，端粒长度的变化可能传达了有关 NICU 暴露的信息，这些暴露具有短期和长期的健康风险。
