Telomere length

Members

Principal Investigator (PI)

Florian Kronenberg

Team

Adriana Koller , Barbara Kollerits , Claudia Lamina , Sebastian Schönherr , Hansi Weissensteiner , Lukas Forer , Stefan Coassin

Relative telomere length and various diseases

Measuring relative telomere length is not very well standardized. We therefore worked hard to improve the measurement of telomere length (Ehrlenbach et al.: Int. J. Epidemiol. 2009).

First studies we performed were within the Bruneck Study in which we described associations between relative telomere length and development of cancer as well as atherosclerosis. The data were included in several meta-analysis consortia.

Later we focused on relative telomere length in patients with chronic kidney disease and here especially in patients from the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study. In this study with almost 5,000 patients with moderate chronic kidney disease we found short relative telomere length quantified from peripheral blood leukocytes to be independently associated with all-cause mortality during four years of follow-up (see Figure). This association was driven by death due to cardiovascular disease as well as death due to infections (Fazzini et al.: Kidney Int. 2020). In further studies in independent chronic kidney disease patient groups we observed an inverse association between relative telomere length and progression of chronic kidney disease (Raschenberger et al.: Sci. Rep. 5:11887, 2015).

In a recent study of the AUGUR cohort we found an association of relative telomere length with age-related macular degeneration which was restricted to women (Koller et al.: Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2022).

Figure: Cumulative incidence function for all-cause mortality by quartiles (Q) of relative telomere length (RTL). Q1 is the quartile including patients with the shortest RTL.(Fazzini et al., Kidney Int. 2020).
Figure: Cumulative incidence function for all-cause mortality by quartiles (Q) of relative telomere length (RTL). Q1 is the quartile including patients with the shortest RTL.(Fazzini et al., Kidney Int. 2020).

Cooperations

GCKD study, CRISIS Study, Bruneck Study, CAVASIC Study, AuGUR Study

Earlier Team Members

Julia Raschenberger, Federica Fazzini, Monika Summerer, Margot Haun, Andreas Melmer, Barbara Rantner, Silvia Erlenbacher, Anita Kloss-Brandstätter

Publications

Koller A, Brandl C, Lamina C, Zimmermann ME, Summerer M, Stark KJ, Würzner R, Heid IM, Kronenberg F: Relative telomere length is associated with age-related macular degeneration in women. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 63:30, 2022. PMID: 35612837   Journal Article

Kronenberg F: Telomere length and chronic kidney disease: cause or consequence?. Kidney Int. 100:980-983, 2021. PMID: 34688387   Editorial

Fazzini F, Lamina C, Raschenberger J, Schultheiss UT, Kotsis F, Schönherr S, Weissensteiner H, Forer L, Steinbrenner I, Meiselbach H, Bärthlein B, Wanner C, Eckardt KU, Köttgen A, Kronenberg F, GCKD Investigators: Results from the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study support association of relative telomere length with mortality in a large cohort of patients with moderate chronic kidney disease. Kidney Int. 98:488-497, 2020. PMID: 32641227   Journal Article

Bateson M, Aviv A, Bendix L, Benetos A, Ben-Shlomo Y, Bojesen SE, Cooper C, Cooper R, Deary IJ, Hägg S, Harris SE, Kark JD, Kronenberg F, Kuh D, Labat C, Martin-Ruiz CM, Meyer C, Nordestgaard BG, Penninx BWJH, Pepper GV, Révész D, Said MA, Starr JM, Syddall H, Thomson WM, van der Harst P, Whooley M, von Zglinicki T, Willeit P, Zhan Y, Nettle D: Smoking does not accelerate leucocyte telomere attrition: a meta-analysis of 18 longitudinal cohorts. R. Soc. Open Sci. 6:190420, 2019. PMID: 31312500   Journal Article

Gielen M, Hageman GJ, Antoniou EE, Nordfjall K, Mangino M, Balasubramanyam M, de Meyer T, Hendricks AE, Giltay EJ, Hunt SC, Nettleton JA, Salpea KD, Diaz VA, Farzaneh-Far R, Atzmon G, Harris SE, Hou L, Gilley D, Hovatta I, Kark JD, Nassar H, Kurz DJ, Mather KA, Willeit P, Zheng YL, Pavanello S, Demerath EW, Rode L, Bunout D, Steptoe A, Boardman L, Marti A, Needham B, Zheng W, Ramsey-Goldman R, Pellatt AJ, Kaprio J, Hofmann JN, Gieger C, Paolisso G, Hjelmborg JBH, Mirabello L, Seeman T, Wong J, van der Harst P, Broer L, Kronenberg F, Kollerits B, Strandberg T, Eisenberg DTA, Duggan C, Verhoeven JE, Schaakxs R, Zannolli R, Dos Reis RMR, Charchar FJ, Tomaszewski M, Mons U, Demuth I, Iglesias Molli AE, Cheng G, Krasnienkov D, D’Antono B, Kasielski M, McDonnell BJ, Ebstein RP, Sundquist K, Pare G, Chong M, Zeegers MP, TELOMAAS group: Body mass index is negatively associated with telomere length: a collaborative cross-sectional meta-analysis of 87 observational studies. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 108:453-475, 2018. PMID: 30535086   Journal Article

Raschenberger J, Lamina C, Haun M, Kollerits B, Coassin S, Boes E, Kedenko L, Köttgen A, Kronenberg F: Influence of DNA extraction methods on relative telomere length measurements and its impact on epidemiological studies. Sci. Rep. 6:25398, 2016. PMID: 27138987   Journal Article

Laimer M, Melmer A, Lamina C, Raschenberger J, Adamovski P, Engl J, Ress C, Tschoner A, Gelsinger C, Mair L, Kiechl S, Willeit J, Willeit P, Stettler C, Tilg H, Kronenberg F, Ebenbichler C: Telomere length increase after weight loss induced by bariatric surgery: results from a 10 year prospective study. Int. J. Obes. (Lond) 40:773-778, 2016. PMID: 26607038   Journal Article

Raschenberger J, Kollerits B, Titze S, Köttgen A, Bärthlein B, Ekici AB, Forer L, Schönherr S, Weissensteiner H, Haun M, Wanner C, Eckardt KU, Kronenberg F, GCKD study Investigators: Do telomeres have a higher plasticity than thought? Results from the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study as a high-risk population. Exp. Gerontol. 72:162-166, 2015. PMID: 26423240   Journal Article

Raschenberger J, Kollerits B, Titze S, Köttgen A, Bärthlein B, Ekici AB, Forer L, Schönherr S, Weissensteiner H, Haun M, Wanner C, Eckardt KU, Kronenberg F, GCKD study Investigators: Association of relative telomere length with cardiovascular disease in a large chronic kidney disease cohort: the GCKD study. Atherosclerosis 242:529-534, 2015. PMID: 26302167   Journal Article

Raschenberger J, Kollerits B, Ritchie J, Lane B, Kalra PA, Ritz E, Kronenberg F: Association of relative telomere length with progression of chronic kidney disease in two cohorts: effect modification by smoking and diabetes. Sci. Rep. 5:11887, 2015. PMID: 26149682   Journal Article

Willeit P, Raschenberger J, Heydon EE, Tsimikas S, Haun M, Mayr A, Weger S, Witztum JL, Butterworth AS, Willeit J, Kronenberg F, Kiechl S: Leucocyte telomere length and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: new prospective cohort study and literature-based meta-analysis. PLoS One 9:e112483, 2014. PMID: 25390655   Journal Article

Broer L, Raschenberger J, Deelen J, Mangino M, Codd V, Pietiläinen KH, Albrecht E, Amin N, Beekman M, de Craen AJ, Gieger C, Haun M, Henneman P, Herder C, Hovatta I, Laser A, Kedenko L, Koenig W, Kollerits B, Moilanen E, Oostra BA, Paulweber B, Quaye L, Rissanen A, Roden M, Surakka I, Valdes AM, Vuolteenaho K, Thorand B, van Dijk KW, Kaprio J, Spector TD, Slagboom PE, Samani NJ, Kronenberg F, van Duijn CM, Ladwig KH: Association of adiponectin and leptin with relative telomere length in seven independent cohorts including 11,448 participants. Eur. J. Epidemiol. 29:629-638, 2014. PMID: 25064619   Journal Article

Raschenberger J, Kollerits B, Hammerer-Lercher A, Rantner B, Stadler M, Haun M, Klein-Weigel P, Fraedrich G, Kronenberg F: The association of relative telomere length with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease: results from the CAVASIC study. Atherosclerosis 229:469-474, 2013. PMID: 23880207   Journal Article

Willeit P, Willeit J, Kloss-Brandstätter A, Kronenberg F, Kiechl S: Fifteen-year follow-up of association between telomere length and incident cancer and cancer mortality. JAMA 306:42-44, 2011. PMID: 21730239   Journal Article

Willeit P, Willeit J, Mayr A, Weger S, Oberhollenzer F, Brandstätter A, Kronenberg F, Kiechl S: Telomere length and risk of incident cancer and cancer mortality. JAMA 304:69-75, 2010. PMID: 20606151   Journal Article

Willeit P, Willeit J, Brandstätter A, Ehrlenbach S, Mayr A, Gasperi A, Weger S, Oberhollenzer F, Reindl M, Kronenberg F, Kiechl S: Cellular aging reflected by leukocyte telomere length predicts advanced atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease risk. Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol. 30:1649-1656, 2010. PMID: 20508208   Journal Article

Ehrlenbach S, Willeit P, Kiechl S, Willeit J, Reindl M, Schanda K, Kronenberg F, Brandstätter A: Raising the bar on telomere epidemiology. Int. J. Epidemiol. 39:308-309, 2010. PMID: 20061350   Commentary

Ehrlenbach S, Willeit P, Kiechl S, Willeit J, Reindl M, Schanda K, Kronenberg F, Brandstätter A: Influences on the reduction of relative telomere length over 10 years in the population-based Bruneck Study: introduction of a well-controlled high-throughput assay. Int. J. Epidemiol. 38:1725-1734, 2009. PMID: 19666704   Journal Article