title: Is chronic asthma associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length at midlife?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Asthma is prospectively associated with age-related chronic diseases and mortality, suggesting the hypothesis that asthma may relate to a general, multisystem phenotype of accelerated aging.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To test whether chronic asthma is associated with a proposed biomarker of accelerated aging, leukocyte telomere length.
  
  
  METHODS
  Asthma was ascertained prospectively in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study cohort (n = 1,037) at nine in-person assessments spanning ages 9-38 years. Leukocyte telomere length was measured at ages 26 and 38 years. Asthma was classified as life-course-persistent, childhood-onset not meeting criteria for persistence, and adolescent/adult-onset. We tested associations between asthma and leukocyte telomere length using regression models. We tested for confounding of asthma-leukocyte telomere length associations using covariate adjustment. We tested serum C-reactive protein and white blood cell counts as potential mediators of asthma-leukocyte telomere length associations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Study members with life-course-persistent asthma had shorter leukocyte telomere length as compared with sex- and age-matched peers with no reported asthma. In contrast, leukocyte telomere length in study members with childhood-onset and adolescent/adult-onset asthma was not different from leukocyte telomere length in peers with no reported asthma. Adjustment for life histories of obesity and smoking did not change results. Study members with life-course-persistent asthma had elevated blood eosinophil counts. Blood eosinophil count mediated 29% of the life-course-persistent asthma-leukocyte telomere length association.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Life-course-persistent asthma is related to a proposed biomarker of accelerated aging, possibly via systemic eosinophilic inflammation. Life histories of asthma can inform studies of aging.
authors: 1 Center for The Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors: Daniel W
authors: DW
authors: Belsky
authors: Idan
authors: I
authors: Shalev
authors: Malcolm R
authors: MR
authors: Sears
authors: Robert J
authors: RJ
authors: Hancox
authors: Hona
authors: H
authors: Lee Harrington
authors: Renate
authors: R
authors: Houts
authors: Terrie E
authors: TE
authors: Moffitt
authors: Karen
authors: K
authors: Sugden
authors: Benjamin
authors: B
authors: Williams
authors: Richie
authors: R
authors: Poulton
authors: Avshalom
authors: A
authors: Caspi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D001249:Asthma / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count / Q000379:methods; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D059505:Telomere Homeostasis / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D002097:C-Reactive Protein
keywords: aging; asthma; developmental phenotype; longitudinal; telomere