Telomere length and risk of Parkinson's disease.
We investigated whether telomere length was associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in a case-control study (96 cases and 172 age-matched controls) nested within the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Relative ratio of telomere repeat copy number to single-gene copy number in peripheral blood leukocytes was determined by quantitative real time PCR. Men with shorter telomeres had a lower PD risk (multivariate adjusted relative risk for the lowest vs. the highest quartile 0.33; 95% confidence interval: 0.12-0.90). Our results suggest that, contrary to telomere attrition observed in several aging-related diseases, shorter telomeres are not associated with an increased risk of PD.
Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. hwangi@hsph.harvard.edu
Hao
H
Wang
Honglei
H
Chen
Xiang
X
Gao
Monica
M
McGrath
Dwayne
D
Deer
Immaculata
I
De Vivo
Michael A
MA
Schwarzschild
Alberto
A
Ascherio
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016615:Telomere / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*