Telomere length, pre-eclampsia, and gestational diabetes

The association of telomere length with pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) was examined in a nested case-control study. Circulating leukocyte telomere length was measured by Quantitative-PCR. Mean and median telomere length among cases and controls was compared, and logistic regression was used to model the outcomes as a function of tertile telomere length, with control for effects of potential confounders. Mean telomere length in pre-eclampsia cases was 0.77 (SD 0.14), in GDM cases was 0.73 (SD 0.10), and in controls was 0.74 (SD 0.14). The adjusted odds ratio comparing the highest tertile to the lowest for pre-eclampsia was 0.92 (0.15-5.46), and for gestational diabetes was 0.65 (0.13-3.34).Further study is necessary to determine if telomere length is associated with these pregnancy complications.Telomeres are terminal regions of chromosomes that comprise multiple tandem repeats of a base sequence[1] Telomere length is a marker of the cumulative damage the cell has been exposed to [2], and has been associated with cardiovascular disease[3], general cardiovascular damage [4], and atherosclerosis [5]. Hypertensive patients have been reported to have shorter telomeres [6-9], especially when they had high renin to aldosterone ratios[10]. Similarly, blood pressure has been associated with shorter telomeres and low telomerase activity [11-13] Diabetes patients have been shown to have shorter telomeres in several studies, [11,14-17] and increased telomere attrition [18] and shorter telomere length [6,19] have been associated with insulin resistance. Higher glucose and insulin were associated with shorter telomeres [11,20] and low telomerase activity [12], while good glycemic control was associated with more favorable telomere dynamics[17,20]Telomere length and dynamics vary substantially between individuals [21] and are influenced by a number of factors, including genetics and family relationship [13,22,23], multivitamin use [23], race [21], smoking [1