Telomere Length and All-Cause Mortality: A Meta-analysis

Telomere attrition is associated with increased morbidity and mortality of various age-related diseases. Reports of association between telomere length (TL) and all-cause mortality remain inconsistent. In the present study, a meta-analysis was performed using published cohort studies and un-published data from the Swedish Twin Registry (STR). Twenty-five studies were included: four STR cohorts (12,083 individuals with 2517 deaths) and 21 published studies. In the STR studies, one standard deviation (SD) decrement of leukocyte TL corresponded to 13% increased all-cause mortality risk (95% confidence interval [CI]: 7%–19%); individuals in the shortest TL quarter had 44% higher hazard (95% CI: 27%–63%) than those in the longest quarter. Meta-analysis of all eligible studies (121,749 individuals with 21,763 deaths) revealed one SD TL decrement-associated hazard ratio of 1.09 (95% CI: 1.06–1.13); those in the shortest TL quarter had 26% higher hazard (95% CI: 15%–38%) compared to the longest quarter, although between-study heterogeneity was observed. Analyses stratified by age indicated that the hazard ratio was smaller in individuals over 80 years old. In summary, short telomeres are associated with increased all-cause mortality risk in the general population. However, TL measurement techniques and age at measurement contribute to the heterogeneity of effect estimation.     

Comparison of Telomere Length between Buccal Cells and Blood Cells

Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine - Telomere length (TL) in blood cells is commonly used as a proxy for TL in other tissue types. The source of DNA of adequate quality and quantity is...     

Editorial: Neural Systems and Psychiatric Disorders

Introduction: Patients with schizophrenia demonstrate a wide range of information processing deficits. Most recent studies argue in favour of high level deficits, including attention and context processing, whereas fewer studies have demonstrated deficits at earlier stages of processing, such as perceptual discrimination and organisation. This is the first study to investigate both high and low level processing, within a single paradigm, in the case of auditory temporal processing in schizophrenia. Methods: Patients with schizophrenia were compared to controls on a series of tasks involving three auditory temporal processes varying from low to higher level: (1) segregation of a complex sequence into component auditory streams; (2) detection of local temporal irregularities within a stream; (3) attentional focusing on one stream by the use of a cue preceding the complex sequence. Results: The lowest level of processing examined here--stream segregation--appeared to function equally well in patients as in controls. However, the higher level processes--irregularity detection and attentional focus--functioned in both groups, but less efficiently in patients with schizophrenia. Conclusions: Results demonstrate abnormal auditory temporal processing in schizophrenia. Abnormal performances only in Processes 2 and 3 support and hypothesis of higher level rather than lower level processing deficits in schizophrenia.     

Leukocyte Telomere Length in Patients with Radiographic Knee Osteoarthritis

Relative mean telomere sequence amount was determined by quantitative PCR (qPCR) of peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) samples obtained at recruitment (n = 310) from individuals from the Osteoarthritis (OA) Initiative consortium. Knees were radiologically evaluated according to the Kellgren–Lawrence (KL) score, ranging from 0 to 4, considering a KL grade ≥ 2 as radiographic evidence of OA (n = 124). Telomere size decreased as baseline KL score increased, being significantly shorter in subjects with KL ≥2 (Mann–Whitney U-test, P < 0.0001). PBL telomere size was also associated with age, hypertension, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. Nevertheless, logistic regression analysis showed that PBL telomere size was a consistent risk factor for concurrent knee OA, independent of these health parameters. Shorter PBL telomeres may indicate a premature aging status which enhances chondrocyte senescence and degenerative joint disease. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 60:298–301, 2019. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Relationship between Radiosensitivity and Telomere Length in Human Carcinoma Cell Lines

1 Introducion Radiotherapy has long been used as a curative treatment for many cancers. The sensitivity to the irradiation differs in various cancers, and relates to the individual radiotherapy protocol for each patient who suffered from malignancys. So what we will do is to find some definite indicators for radiosensitivity in order to make the individual treatment available. The length of telomere which is known as the "miototic clock" to determine the cell division ability[1]. Radiosensitivity is correlated with the cell division ability, therefore it maybe hypothesized that there is some intrinsic relationship between telomere length and radiosensitivity. In order to explore if the telomere length could be a valid indicator for radiosensitivity, we investigated the correlation between the radiosensitivity and telomere length with or without the pretreatment of azidothymidine (AZT), a telomerase inhibitor which can shorten the telomere, in several carcinoma cell lines.     

Relationship between Radiosensitivity and Telomere Length in Human Carcinoma Cell Lines

1 IntroducionRadiotherapy has long been used as a curative treatment for many cancers. The sensitivity to the irradiation differs in various cancers, and relates to the individual radiotherapy protocol for each patient who suffered from malignancys. So what we will do is to find some definite indicators for radiosensitivity in order to make the individual treatment available. The length of telomere which is known as the “miototic clock” to determine the cell division ability~([1]). Radiosen…     

Peroxisomal Disorders: A Review on Cerebellar Pathologies

Peroxisomes are organelles with diverse metabolic tasks including essential roles in lipid metabolism. They are of utmost importance for the normal functioning of the nervous system as most peroxisomal disorders are accompanied with neurological symptoms. Remarkably, the cerebellum exquisitely depends on intact peroxisomal function both during development and adulthood. In this review, we cover all aspects of cerebellar pathology that were reported in peroxisome biogenesis disorders and in diseases caused by dysfunction of the peroxisomal α‐oxidation, β‐oxidation or ether lipid synthesis pathways. We also discuss the phenotypes of mouse models in which cerebellar pathologies were recapitulated and search for connections with the metabolic abnormalities. It becomes increasingly clear that besides the most severe forms of peroxisome dysfunction that are associated with developmental cerebellar defects, milder impairments can give rise to ataxia later in life.     

Telomere Length and Mental Well-Being in Elderly Men from the Netherlands and Greece

Telomeres, repetitive DNA sequences that promote chromosomal stability, have been related to different measures of mental well-being and self-rated health, but mainly in women during adulthood. We aimed to investigate whether accelerated telomere shortening is associated with poor mental well-being and poor self-rated health in community-dwelling elderly men. Leukocyte telomere length was measured using quantitative PCR in two different samples of 203 elderly men (mean age 78 years) from the Netherlands in 1993, and 123 elderly men (mean age 84 years) from Greece in 2000. We also obtained follow-up data in 2000 from 144 Dutch subjects, of whom 75 had paired telomere length data in 1993 and 2000. Mental well-being was conceptualized as dispositional optimism, depressive symptoms, cognitive functioning, and loneliness. Linear regression analyses were used to study the association between telomere length, measures of mental well being, and self-rated health, while adjusting for potential confounders. In cross-sectional analyses, leukocyte telomere length was not associated with measures of mental well-being and self-rated health, neither in the Netherlands nor in Greece. Also, the rate of leukocyte telomere shortening (mean decrease: 0.28 kbp over 7 years) in the 75 Dutch participants with longitudinal data was not associated with changes in different measures of mental well-being and self-rated health. Thus, our results provide no support for a relationship between leukocyte telomere length and mental well-being in elderly community-dwelling men.     

Aging-Associated Alteration of Telomere Length and Subtelomeric Status in Female Patients With Parkinson's Disease

Abstract: A telomere is a repetitive DNA structure at chromosomal ends that stabilizes the chromosome structure and prevents harmful end-to-end recombinations. The telomere length of somatic cells becomes shorter with aging because of the “end replication problem.” This telomere shortening is accelerated by pathophysiological conditions including daily mental stress. Living with Parkinson's disease (PD) causes physical and mental stress; therefore, the authors hypothesized that the telomere length of somatic cells was shortened excessively in patients with PD. In order to detect PD-associated somatic telomeric alterations, the telomere length and subtelomeric methylation status of peripheral leukocytes of PD patients were assessed by Southern blotting, using methylation-sensitive and -insensitive isoschizomers. The results demonstrated that the peripheral leukocytes of Japanese female patients with PD bore fewer long telomeres and a proportional increase of hypomethylated subtelomeres in short telomeres in comparison with the healthy controls. This study indicates that with the neurodegeneration associated with PD, telomeric and subtelomeric structural alterations occur. These structural telomere altertions most likely occur secondary to the acceleration of aging-associated telomeric changes and the accelerated loss of cells bearing short telomeres.     

51例进食障碍患者的临床特征分析

目的 :了解进食障碍患者的临床特征。方法 :对符合CCMD -2 -R神经性厌食症 (AN)和神经性贪食症 (BN)诊断标准的 5 1例住院进食障碍患者的临床特征进行了回顾性分析。结果 :AN和BN患者的怕胖心理、闭经、采取相似的方式减少食物对于身体的影响等临床相相似 (P >0 0 5 )。但是AN患者较BN患者发病年龄早 (t =2 3 2 0 ,P <0 0 5 ) ,体像障碍比较多见 (χ2 =6 110 ,P <0 0 5 ) ;BN患者的抑郁主诉多 (χ2 =8 612 ,P <0 0 0 1) ,病程长 (t=3 2 17,P <0 0 5 ) ,停工、停学时间长 (t=2 2 16,P <0 0 5 ) ,自知力较好。结论 :进食障碍两大综合征可能是一个疾病进程中的两个不同阶段 ,而贪食症的危害更应引起重视     

203例老年住院患者精神障碍会诊病例分析

本文采用ICD -10临床诊断标准收集我院 8年中临床各科邀请精神科会诊的 2 0 3例老年病例进行分析 ,采用SPSS9 O版软件进行统计学处理。结果 :2 0 3例会诊病例中 ,男性 13 4例 ,女性 69例。年龄从 65岁到 90岁 ,平均 72± 6岁。住院时间为 3 3 3 4±3 0 98天。会诊总次数为 2 63人次 ,急会诊 68人次 ,普通会诊 195人次。申请会诊的以内科 ( 15 4例 )和外科 ( 3 4例 )为主。内科以高干病房 ( 63例 )、呼吸内科 ( 2 6例 )、心脏内科 ( 2 3例 )和神经内科 ( 19例 )为主 ;外科以神经外科和普通外科 (各 13例 )为主。表 1　会诊后精神疾病的…