Telomere Length Inversely Correlates With Pulse Pressure and Is Highly Familial

There is evidence that telomeres, the ends of chromosomes, serve as clocks that pace cellular aging in vitro and in vivo. In industrialized nations, pulse pressure rises with age, and it might serve as a phenotype of biological aging of the vasculature. We therefore conducted a twin study to investi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. 1979) Tex. 1979), 2000-08, Vol.36 (2), p.195-200
Main Authors: Jeanclos, Elisabeth, Schork, Nicholas J, Kyvik, Kirsten O, Kimura, Masayuki, Skurnick, Joan H, Aviv, Abraham
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Arterial hypertension. Arterial hypotension
Biological and medical sciences
Blood and lymphatic vessels
Blood Pressure - genetics
Blood Pressure - physiology
Cardiology. Vascular system
Clinical manifestations. Epidemiology. Investigative techniques. Etiology
Diastole
DNA - genetics
Family Health
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Multivariate Analysis
Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
Pulse
Regression Analysis
Systole
Telomere - genetics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:There is evidence that telomeres, the ends of chromosomes, serve as clocks that pace cellular aging in vitro and in vivo. In industrialized nations, pulse pressure rises with age, and it might serve as a phenotype of biological aging of the vasculature. We therefore conducted a twin study to investigate the relation between telomere length in white blood cells and pulse pressure while simultaneously assessing the role of genetic factors in determining telomere length. We measured by Southern blot analysis the mean length of the terminal restriction fragments (TRF) in white blood cells of 49 twin pairs from the Danish Twin Register and assessed the relations of blood pressure parameters with TRF. TRF length showed an inverse relation with pulse pressure. Both TRF length and pulse pressure were highly familial. We conclude that telomere length, which is under genetic control, might play a role in mechanisms that regulate pulse pressure, including vascular aging.
ISSN:0194-911X
1524-4563
DOI:10.1161/01.HYP.36.2.195