title: Association of shorter telomere length with essential hypertension in Indian population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Essential hypertension is known to be associated with growth, development, and aging of humans. Telomeres are specialized nucleoprotein complexes consisting of tandem repeats of DNA sequences (TTAGGG)n that serve as protective caps of human chromosomes. Telomere length is considered as a biomarker of aging in somatic cells. In the present investigation, leukocyte telomere length was determined among hypertensive and normal individuals to find out the association, if any, with hypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  Venous blood samples were collected from normal and hypertensive individuals with written informed consent approved by ethic committee of Department of Genetics, Osmania University Hyderabad, India. Genomic DNA was isolated from blood samples of 98 normal (age range: 30-70 years, mean age: 51.01 ± 10.12 years) and 96 hypertensive individuals (age range: 35-75 years, mean age: 49.18 ± 6.46 years). Using a SYBR green-based real time quantitative PCR relative telomere length was determined among these individuals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The relative telomere length (T/S ratio) in hypertensive individuals was observed to be 0.91 ± 0.16 which was significantly different (P < 0.001) from normal individuals where the relative telomere length was 0.99 ± 0.13. No significant difference was observed between relative telomere length of male and female individuals, although there is negative correlation between age and telomere length was observed in both normal and hypertensive individuals. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure was negatively correlated with relative telomere length, though not significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Shorter telomere length is associated with hypertensive individuals in Indian population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Osmania University, Hyderabad 500 007, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Charita
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bhupatiraju
authors.forename: Divyalakshmi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Saini
authors.forename: Sushma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Patkar
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Deepak
authors.forename: Birajalaxmi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Padma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers; D005260:Female; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics*; D007194:India; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes