Association between telomere length, inflammation and cardiovascular risk

Optimization of a Relative Telomere Length Assay by Monochromatic Multiplex Real-Time Quantitative PCR on the LightCycler 480

“…Data from the Framingham Heart Study reveal associations between shorter LTL and systemic oxidative stress, increased carotid intimal medial thickness in obese men, higher renin to aldosterone ratio, and lower left ventricular mass. 6e9 Similarly, LTL is negatively associated with a cardiovascular risk score developed by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) known as ASSIGN (Assessing cardiovascular risk using SIGN), 10 whereas the Framingham risk score is associated with the proportion of leukocytes with telomeres shorter than 5 kb. 11 The implementation of TL measurements in the standard of care will necessitate the development of high-throughput techniques with low variability and cost.…”