TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender and telomere length
T2 - Systematic review and meta-analysis
AU - Gardner, Michael
AU - Bann, David
AU - Wiley, Laura
AU - Cooper, Rachel
AU - Hardy, Rebecca
AU - Nitsch, Dorothea
AU - Martin-Ruiz, Carmen
AU - Shiels, Paul
AU - Sayer, Avan Aihie
AU - Barbieri, Michelangela
AU - Bekaert, Sofie
AU - Bischoff, Claus
AU - Brooks-Wilson, Angela
AU - Chen, Wei
AU - Cooper, Cyrus
AU - Christensen, Kaare
AU - De Meyer, Tim
AU - Deary, Ian
AU - Der, Geoff
AU - Roux, Ana Diez
AU - Fitzpatrick, Annette
AU - Hajat, Anjum
AU - Halaschek-Wiener, Julius
AU - Harris, Sarah
AU - Hunt, Steven C.
AU - Jagger, Carol
AU - Jeon, Hyo Sung
AU - Kaplan, Robert
AU - Kimura, Masayuki
AU - Lansdorp, Peter
AU - Li, Changyong
AU - Maeda, Toyoki
AU - Mangino, Massimo
AU - Nawrot, Tim S.
AU - Nilsson, Peter
AU - Nordfjall, Katarina
AU - Paolisso, Giuseppe
AU - Ren, Fu
AU - Riabowol, Karl
AU - Robertson, Tony
AU - Roos, Goran
AU - Staessen, Jan A.
AU - Spector, Tim
AU - Tang, Nelson
AU - Unryn, Brad
AU - van der Harst, Pim
AU - Woo, Jean
AU - Xing, Chao
AU - Yadegarfar, Mohammad E.
AU - Park, Jae Yong
AU - Young, Neal
AU - Kuh, Diana
AU - von Zglinicki, Thomas
AU - Ben-Shlomo, Yoav
N1 - Funding Information:
We are very grateful to all cohort members who participated in the studies. Regarding the MESA study: This research was supported by contracts N01-HC-95159 through N01-HC-95169 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and by grants UL1-RR-024156 and UL1-RR-025005 from NCRR . The authors thank the other investigators, the staff, and the participants of the MESA study for their valuable contributions. A full list of participating MESA investigators and institutions can be found at http://www.mesa-nhlbi.org . Regarding the Cardiovascular Health Study: This research was supported by grant HL80698 and contracts HHSN268201200036C, HHSN268200800007C, N01HC55222, N01HC85079, N01HC85080, N01HC85081, N01HC85082, N01HC85083, N01HC85086 and grant HL080295 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), with additional contribution from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Additional support from provided by AG023629 from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) . A full list of principal CHS investigators and institutions can be found at http://www.chs-nhlbi.org/PI.htm . Jang et al.'s (2008) study was supported by a grant from the National R & D Program for Cancer Control, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea ( 0720550-2 ). We acknowledge the help of Christine Garcia, the corresponding author of the Cronkhite et al. (2008) study.
Funding Information:
HALCyon is funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing (RES-353-25-0001) and MG and RC have received support from this grant. The NSHD is funded by the UK Medical Research Council (U120063239 and U123092720). TvZ acknowledges funding by MRC for telomere measurements (G0500997 and G0601333) and from BBSRC (BH092279) for a CASE studentship for LW. The Hertfordshire Ageing Study was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the UK Medical Research Council. The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 wave 1 phenotypic data collection and DNA preparation was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (project grant 15/SAG09977). The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 wave 3 phenotypic data collection was funded by the Chief Scientific Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates (project grant CZB/4/505). The LBC1921 work was undertaken by the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, part of the cross council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Initiative (Centre grant G0700704/84698). Funding from the BBSRC, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) is gratefully acknowledged. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the data, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
PY - 2014/3
Y1 - 2014/3
N2 - Background: It is widely believed that females have longer telomeres than males, although results from studies have been contradictory. Methods: We carried out a systematic review and meta-analyses to test the hypothesis that in humans, females have longer telomeres than males and that this association becomes stronger with increasing age. Searches were conducted in EMBASE and MEDLINE (by November 2009) and additional datasets were obtained from study investigators. Eligible observational studies measured telomeres for both females and males of any age, had a minimum sample size of 100 and included participants not part of a diseased group. We calculated summary estimates using random-effects meta-analyses. Heterogeneity between studies was investigated using sub-group analysis and meta-regression. Results: Meta-analyses from 36 cohorts (36,230 participants) showed that on average females had longer telomeres than males (standardised difference in telomere length between females and males 0.090, 95% CI 0.015, 0.166; age-adjusted). There was little evidence that these associations varied by age group (p = 1.00) or cell type (p = 0.29). However, the size of this difference did vary by measurement methods, with only Southern blot but neither real-time PCR nor Flow-FISH showing a significant difference. This difference was not associated with random measurement error. Conclusions: Telomere length is longer in females than males, although this difference was not universally found in studies that did not use Southern blot methods. Further research on explanations for the methodological differences is required.
AB - Background: It is widely believed that females have longer telomeres than males, although results from studies have been contradictory. Methods: We carried out a systematic review and meta-analyses to test the hypothesis that in humans, females have longer telomeres than males and that this association becomes stronger with increasing age. Searches were conducted in EMBASE and MEDLINE (by November 2009) and additional datasets were obtained from study investigators. Eligible observational studies measured telomeres for both females and males of any age, had a minimum sample size of 100 and included participants not part of a diseased group. We calculated summary estimates using random-effects meta-analyses. Heterogeneity between studies was investigated using sub-group analysis and meta-regression. Results: Meta-analyses from 36 cohorts (36,230 participants) showed that on average females had longer telomeres than males (standardised difference in telomere length between females and males 0.090, 95% CI 0.015, 0.166; age-adjusted). There was little evidence that these associations varied by age group (p = 1.00) or cell type (p = 0.29). However, the size of this difference did vary by measurement methods, with only Southern blot but neither real-time PCR nor Flow-FISH showing a significant difference. This difference was not associated with random measurement error. Conclusions: Telomere length is longer in females than males, although this difference was not universally found in studies that did not use Southern blot methods. Further research on explanations for the methodological differences is required.
KW - Epidemiology
KW - Gender
KW - Measurement methods
KW - Systematic review and meta-analysis
KW - Telomere length
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U2 - 10.1016/j.exger.2013.12.004
DO - 10.1016/j.exger.2013.12.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 24365661
AN - SCOPUS:84892560321
SN - 0531-5565
VL - 51
SP - 15
EP - 27
JO - Experimental Gerontology
JF - Experimental Gerontology
IS - 1
ER -