title: Celiac disease autoimmunity is associated with leukocyte telomere shortening in older adults: The U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
abstract: Telomeres are nucleotide sequences, and their function is to maintain cell surveillance. Exaggeration of the attrition rate of leukocyte telomere length (LTL) may result in genomic instability and tumorigenesis. Celiac disease (CD), an autoimmune inflammation of small intestine, has increasing prevalence in the elderly and may lead to lymphomas and gastrointestinal malignancies. We used nationally-representative datasets from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to investigate if CD autoimmunity in older adults (age≥50years) is associated with shorter LTL.
  
  
  
  Our study included 3939 subjects, where 25 subjects (mean age 65years) were CD seropositive and 3914 (mean age 64years) were CD seronegative. CD seropositive subjects had shorter LTL than CD seronegative subjects (P<0.001). In the linear regression model, CD seropositivity was significantly associated with 0.25kb pairs decrease in LTL length (P<0.001), adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, serum ferritin and folate, and ratio of family income to poverty.
  
  
  
  In a nationally-representative population of adults age≥50years, CD seropositivity is significantly associated with shorter LTL, independently of age, sex, race/ethnicity, serum ferritin and folate, and socioeconomic status. This supports the enhanced telomere attrition in of CD seropositive adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 125 Nashua St, Suite 920, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Geriatrics, Medical Clinic, University Hospital of North Norway, Sykehusveien 38, 9038 Tromsoe, Norway; Endocrine Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Clinical Medicine, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Hansine Hansens Veg 18, 9017 Tromsoe, Norway. Electronic address: elena.kamycheva@unn.no.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kamycheva
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 125 Nashua St, Suite 920, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: qq_gto@yahoo.co.jp.
authors.forename: Tadahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 125 Nashua St, Suite 920, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: ccamargo@partners.org.
authors.forename: Carlos A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Camargo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015551:Autoimmunity; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D007962:Leukocytes; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D012923:Social Class; D016615:Telomere / Q000648:ultrastructure; D059506:Telomere Shortening; D014481:United States
keywords: Celiac disease; Leukocyte telomere length; NHANES; Tissue transglutaminase IgA