Early life infection, but not breastfeeding, predicts adult blood telomere lengths in the Philippines.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Telomeres are repetitive DNA at chromosomes ends that shorten with age due to cellular replication and oxidative stress. As telomeres shorten, this can eventually place limits on cell replication and contribute to senescence. Infections are common during early development and activate cellular immune responses that involve clonal expansion and oxidative stress. As such, a high infectious disease burden might shorten blood telomere length (BTL) and accelerate the pace of immune senescence.

Methods

To test this, BTL measured in young adults (21.7 ± 0.3 years old) from the Philippines (N = 1,759) were linked to prospectively collected early life data on infectious burden.

Results

As predicted, increased early life diarrheal prevalence was associated with short

SUBMITTER: Eisenberg DTA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5511763 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature