BACKGROUND The incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) increases with age. Telomere length is considered a marker of biological ageing. We investigated the association between leukocyte telomere length and incident AF in the Dutch Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-stage Disease (PREVEND) study. METHODS We included 7775 individuals without prevalent AF, and with leukocyte telomere length meas...

BACKGROUND Telomere attrition is extremely rapid during the first years of life, while lifestyle during adulthood exerts a minor impact. This suggests that early life is an important period in the determination of telomere length. We investigated the importance of the early-life environment on both telomere tracking and adult telomere length. METHODS Among 184 twins of the East Flanders Prosp...

BACKGROUND Short telomere length independently predicts mortality in patients with coronary heart disease. Whether 5-year change in telomere length predicts subsequent mortality in patients with coronary heart disease has not been evaluated. METHODS In a prospective cohort study of 608 individuals with stable coronary artery disease, we measured leukocyte telomere length at baseline and after...

Previous studies showed that chromosomal instability was common in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC); however, the mechanisms underlying this instability are unknown. Individuals with deficiencies in telomere maintenance are susceptible to enhanced telomere loss during cell proliferation; such deficiencies could result in telomere dysfunction and genomic instability. We investigated the...

Human telomere length, as expressed in leukocytes, is strongly fashioned by heritability. A number of genes that explain some of the inter-individual variation in leukocyte telomere length have already been identified. Leukocyte telomere length is longer in women than in men and in African Americans than in whites of european descent. in addition, offspring of older fathers display a longer leu...

Telomere length has a biological link to cancer, with excessive telomere shortening leading to genetic instability and resultant malignant transformation. Telomere length is heritable and genetic variants determining telomere length have been identified. Telomere biology has been implicated in the development of hematological malignancies (HMs), therefore, closer examination of telomere length ...

Telomere dynamics are intensively studied in human ageing research and epidemiology, with many correlations reported between telomere length and age-related diseases, cancer and death. While telomere length is influenced by environmental factors there is also good evidence for a strong heritable component. In human, the mode of telomere length inheritance appears to be paternal and telomere len...

INTRODUCTION Telomeres, are composed of tandem repeat sequences located at the ends of chromosomes and are required to maintain genomic stability. Telomeres can become shorter due to cell division and specific lifestyle factors. Critically shortened telomeres are linked to cellular dysfunction, senescence and aging. A number of studies have used low resolution techniques to assess telomere leng...