Medical School of Chinese PLA, Beijing, China.
National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disease, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2021 Apr 28;2021:5530293. doi: 10.1155/2021/5530293. eCollection 2021.
The incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) increases with age, and telomere length gradually shortens with age. However, whether telomere length is related to AF is still inconclusive, and the exact mechanism by which aging causes the increased incidence of AF is still unclear. We hypothesize that telomere length is correlated with aging-related AF and that mitochondrial dysfunction plays a role in this. This research recruited 96 elderly male patients with AF who were admitted to the Second Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from April to October 2018. After matching by age and gender, 96 non-AF elderly male patients who were admitted to the hospital for physical examination during the same period were selected as controls. Anthropometric, clinical, and laboratory analyses were performed on all subjects. The mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) of peripheral blood leukocytes was detected as the indicator of mitochondrial function. Compared with the control group, the leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was significantly shorter ( < 0.001), and the level of PGC-1 in serum was significantly lower in AF patients. Additionally, in subjects without any other diseases, the AF patients had lower MMP when compared with the control. Multivariate logistic regression confirmed that LTL (OR 0.365; 95% CI 0.235-0.568; < 0.001) and serum PGC-1 (OR 0.993; 95% CI 0.988-0.997; = 0.002) were inversely associated with the presence of AF. In addition, ROC analysis indicated the potential diagnostic value of LTL and serum PGC-1 with AUC values of 0.734 and 0.633, respectively. This research concludes that LTL and serum PGC-1 are inversely correlated with the occurrence of aging-related AF and that mitochondrial dysfunction plays a role in this.
心房颤动（AF）的发病率随年龄增长而增加，端粒长度随年龄逐渐缩短。然而，端粒长度是否与 AF 相关仍不确定，导致 AF 发病率增加的确切机制尚不清楚。我们假设端粒长度与与衰老相关的 AF 相关，并且线粒体功能障碍在此过程中发挥作用。
这项研究招募了 2018 年 4 月至 10 月期间因 AF 入住中国人民解放军总医院第二医疗中心的 96 名老年男性患者。通过年龄和性别匹配后，选择同期因体检入住医院的 96 名非 AF 老年男性患者作为对照组。对所有受试者进行人体测量、临床和实验室分析。外周血白细胞的线粒体膜电位（MMP）被检测为线粒体功能的指标。与对照组相比，AF 患者的白细胞端粒长度（LTL）明显缩短（ < 0.001），血清中 PGC-1 的水平明显降低。此外，在没有其他疾病的受试者中，与对照组相比，AF 患者的 MMP 较低。多变量逻辑回归证实，LTL（OR 0.365；95%CI 0.235-0.568； < 0.001）和血清 PGC-1（OR 0.993；95%CI 0.988-0.997； = 0.002）与 AF 的存在呈负相关。此外，ROC 分析表明 LTL 和血清 PGC-1 的潜在诊断价值，AUC 值分别为 0.734 和 0.633。
这项研究得出结论，LTL 和血清 PGC-1 与与衰老相关的 AF 的发生呈负相关，并且线粒体功能障碍在此过程中发挥作用。
