Telomere length in cystic fibrosis patients – Are patients with CF ageing too quickly?

Ashworth, Iona; Norris, Kevin; Thia, Lena; Dodge, John A; Grimstead, Julia W.; Jones, Rhiannon E.; Forton, Julian; Smith, Ann; Farewell, Daniel; Baird, Duncan M.; Duckers, Jamie

Abstract

Life expectancy for patients living with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is increasing year on year and there is growing interest in the ageing process in CF. Telomeres are repetitive sequences of DNA that cap the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes and shorten with ongoing cell division, thus providing a marker of replicative history and biological ageing. We aimed to investigate whether telomere length as a function of age differs between patients with CF and healthy individuals and whether telomere length is associated with severity of the patient’s CF condition.

Peripheral blood samples and demographic data were collected from 47 consenting patients (age 1 to 57 years) with CF attending their routine annual review appointment at the All Wales Adult CF Centre and Noah’s Ark Children’s’ Hospital in Cardiff, UK. Telomere length profiles were assessed from peripheral blood samples, using the high resolution single telomere length analysis technique (STELA) and compared to healthy control telomere length data.

Patients with CF had significantly shorter telomere lengths than healthy individuals, when adjusting for age (p

Citation

Ashworth, I., Norris, K., Thia, L., Dodge, J. A., Grimstead, J. W., Jones, R. E., …Duckers, J. (2021). Telomere length in cystic fibrosis patients – Are patients with CF ageing too quickly?. International Journal of Aging Research, 4, Article 90. https://doi.org/10.28933/ijoar-2021-06-2005

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 26, 2021
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 20, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 21, 2022
• Journal: International Journal of Aging Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Article Number: 90
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.28933/ijoar-2021-06-2005
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/8073493