“…The majority of studies published so far explored peripheral TL in BD, using genomic DNA extracted from leukocytes [47,48,49,50], peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) [51,52] or buccal smears [53]. Overall, findings suggest that BD patients have a significant decrease of peripheral TL, compared with healthy controls [47,51,52,54]. This effect, also confirmed by a recent meta-analysis [55], seems to be independent from mood state, as shorter telomeres have been reported in BD patients in euthymic, depressed, and manic states [55].…”