Heritability of telomere length across three generations of Korean families
Background Leukocyte telomere length (LTL), an indicator of aging, is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors; however, its heritability is unknown. We determined heritability and inheritance patterns of telomere length across three generations of families. Methods We analyzed 287 indiv...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Pediatric research Vol. 87; no. 6; pp. 1060 - 1065 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York
Nature Publishing Group US
01-05-2020
Nature Publishing Group |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Background
Leukocyte telomere length (LTL), an indicator of aging, is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors; however, its heritability is unknown. We determined heritability and inheritance patterns of telomere length across three generations of families.
Methods
We analyzed 287 individuals from three generations of 41 Korean families, including newborns, parents, and grandparents. LTL (the ratio of telomere repeat copy number to single gene copy number) was measured by quantitative real-time PCR. We estimated heritability using the SOLAR software maximum-likelihood variance component methods and a pedigree dataset. With adjustment for age and length of marriage, Pearson’s partial correlation was performed for spousal pairs.
Results
Heritability of LTL was high in all participants (
h
2
= 0.64). There were no significant differences in correlation coefficients of telomere length between paternal and maternal lines. There was a positive LTL correlation in grandfather–grandmother pairs (
r
= 0.25,
p
= 0.03) but not in father–mother pairs. After adjusting for age and length of marriage, the relationship between telomere lengths in grandfathers and grandmothers disappeared. There were inverse correlations between spousal rank differences of telomere length and length of marriage.
Conclusions
LTL is highly heritable without a sex-specific inheritance pattern and may be influenced by a shared environment. |
|---|---|
| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 This manuscript is based on the first author’s doctoral dissertation from the Graduate School of Yonsei University. J.-H. Kim was a major contributor toward acquiring the data and writing the manuscript. C.M.N. contributed to statistical analyses and revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. D.-C.L., J.-H. Ko, H.B., and I.L. contributed to laboratory analyses and revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. G.J.K. was involved with data collection and revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. B.W.K. revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. D.-C.L. was responsible for the study conception and design, as well as for intellectual content of the paper. All authors read and approved the final version of manuscript. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS |
| ISSN: | 0031-3998 1530-0447 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41390-019-0699-7 |