OBJECTIVE Elevated plasma homocysteine is a risk factor for vascular diseases, possibly due to homocysteine-mediated increase in oxidative stress and inflammation. As leukocyte telomere length (LTL) registers the cumulative oxidative stress and inflammation, we examined the relationship between homocysteine and LTL. METHODS LTL was measured using the Southern blot method. The relationship bet...

Telomeres are lengths of repetitive DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes. They protect the ends of the chromosome and shorten with each cell division. Short leukocyte telomere length has been related to a number of age-related diseases (1). In addition, shorter telomere length has been associated with environmental factors such as smoking and lack of exercise (2,3). In a recent issue of Biologi...

PURPOSE Birdshot Uveitis (BU) is an archetypical chronic inflammatory eye disease, with poor visual prognosis, that provides an excellent model for studying chronic inflammation. BU typically affects patients in the fifth decade of life. This suggests that it may represent an age-related chronic inflammatory disease, which has been linked to increased erosion of telomere length of leukocytes. ...

OBJECTIVE Recent studies have identified a set of serological markers for telomere dysfunction and DNA damage. The relevance of these serological markers in type 2 diabetes remains elusive. We investigated the association of serological markers (elongation factor 1α [EF-1α], stathmin, and N-acetyl-glucosaminidase) with leukocyte telomere length, a functional variant of uncoupling protein-2 (UCP...

Telomere length has generated substantial interest as a potential predictor of aging-related diseases and mortality. Some studies have reported significant associations, but few have tested its ability to discriminate between decedents and survivors compared with a broad range of well-established predictors that include both biomarkers and commonly collected self-reported data. Our aim here was...

Vitamin D may reduce telomere shortening through anti-inflammatory and anti-cell proliferation mechanisms. In the present study, we examined the association between vitamin D and relative leukocyte telomere length by using both plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D) biomarkers. Vitamin D biomarker levels and leukocyte telomere length were measured using pl...

INTRODUCTION Short telomere length has been suggested to be associated with atherosclerotic changes in Western populations. We examined the relationships between leukocyte telomere length and cardiovascular and renal function in a Japanese cohort. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS We enrolled 770 subjects who each had at least one cardiovascular risk factor. The mean age was 59.5 ± 12.2 years; mean BM...