학술논문
Telomere length is associated with growth in children in rural Bangladesh.
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article
Author
Lin, Audrie; Mertens, Andrew N; Arnold, Benjamin F; Tan, Sophia; Lin, Jue; Stewart, Christine P; Hubbard, Alan E; Ali, Shahjahan; Benjamin-Chung, Jade; Shoab, Abul K; Rahman, Md Ziaur; Famida, Syeda L; Hossen, Md Saheen; Mutsuddi, Palash; Akther, Salma; Rahman, Mahbubur; Unicomb, Leanne; Naved, Ruchira Tabassum; Mamun, Md Mahfuz Al; Parvin, Kausar; Dhabhar, Firdaus S; Kariger, Patricia; Fernald, Lia Ch; Luby, Stephen P; Colford, John M
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Subject
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Abstract
BackgroundPreviously, we demonstrated that a water, sanitation, handwashing, and nutritional intervention improved linear growth and was unexpectedly associated with shortened childhood telomere length (TL) (Lin et al., 2017). Here, we assessed the association between TL and growth.MethodsWe measured relative TL in whole blood from 713 children. We reported differences between the 10th percentile and 90th percentile of TL or change in TL distribution using generalized additive models, adjusted for potential confounders.ResultsIn cross-sectional analyses, long TL was associated with a higher length-for-age Z score at age 1 year (0.23 SD adjusted difference in length-for-age Z score [95% CI 0.05, 0.42; FDR-corrected p-value = 0.01]). TL was not associated with other outcomes.ConclusionsConsistent with the metabolic telomere attrition hypothesis, our previous trial findings support an adaptive role for telomere attrition, whereby active TL regulation is employed as a strategy to address 'emergency states' with increased energy requirements such as rapid growth during the first year of life. Although short periods of active telomere attrition may be essential to promote growth, this study suggests that a longer overall initial TL setting in the first 2 years of life could signal increased resilience against future telomere erosion events and healthy growth trajectories.FundingFunded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.Clinical trial numberNCT01590095.