title: Telomere length in Parkinson's disease: A meta-analysis.
abstract: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common and severe movement disorder. Differences in telomere length (TL) have been reported as possible risk factors for several neuropsychiatric disorders, including PD. Results from published studies for TL in PD are inconsistent, highlighting the need for a meta-analysis. In the current work, a meta-analysis of published studies for TL in PD was carried out. PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases were used to identify relevant articles that reported TL in groups of PD patients and controls. A random-effects model was used for meta-analytical procedures. The meta-analysis included eight primary studies, derived from populations of European and Asian descent, and did not show a significant difference in TL between 956 PD patients and 1284 controls (p value: 0.246). Our results show that there is no consistent evidence of shorter telomeres in PD patients and suggest the importance of future studies on TL and PD that analyze other populations and also include assessment of TL from different brain regions.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuropsychiatric Genetics, Biomedical Sciences Research Group, School of Medicine, Universidad Antonio Nariño, Bogotá, Colombia. Electronic address: diego.forero@uan.edu.co.
authors.forename: Diego A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Forero
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Nutrición y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Yeimy
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: González-Giraldo
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States.
authors.forename: Catalina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: López-Quintero
authors.affiliation: INSERM, UMR970, Paris-Cardiovascular Research Center, F-75015 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Luis J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Castro-Vega
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Nutrición y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia; Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: George E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Barreto
authors.affiliation: College of Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Perry
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D012307:Risk Factors; D016615:Telomere / Q000473:pathology*; D059506:Telomere Shortening
keywords: Epigenomics; Meta-analysis; Movement disorders; Parkinson's disease; Telomeres