Association of early and current life factors with telomere length in preterm-born children.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Telomeres shorten after each cell division. Since preterm-born babies are delivered early and often suffer from inflammatory conditions such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), their telomere length may be altered.

Objectives

We assessed associations of early and current life factors with telomere length in saliva samples obtained from 7-12-year-old children born at ≤34 weeks' gestation and term-born controls.

Study design

Relative telomere length was measured by qPCR on extracted DNA. Groups were compared using independent t-tests or ANOVA with post-hoc correction. Linear regression analysis was also used.

Results

534 children had satisfactory telomere data including 383 who were preterm-born (mean (SD) birthweight 1732g (558g), gestation 31.1 (2.6

SUBMITTER: Kotecha EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10631654 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature