B3353 - Understanding determinants of Telomere length in early life and its effect on Cardiovascular risk throughout the life course - 16/08/2019

B number: 
B3353
Principal applicant name: 
Veryan Codd | University of Leicester (UK)
Co-applicants: 
Christopher Nelson, Sue Ring, Laura Corbin
Title of project: 
Understanding determinants of Telomere length in early life and its effect on Cardiovascular risk throughout the life course
Proposal summary: 

Telomere length (TL) is a DNA marker of biological age in humans. Shorter TL (signifying older biological age) associates with higher risk of age-related disease such as coronary artery disease. Whilst TL is strongly heritable, it is also associated with lifestyle and environmental factors, such as diet, exercise and smoking in adults. However, recent studies have proposed that TL is "set" in early life and that environmental/lifestyle exposures may have more effect on TL during childhood. For example, adult smokers have, on average, shorter TL than non-smokers but smoking does not increase TL loss over time in adulthood. Therefore, the relationship between smoking and TL is more complex and is likely established at an early age. One possible explanation is that childhood exposure to smoke from parental smoking both shortens TL in the child and increases the likelihood of them smoking in later life. These same relationships may also be seen for other traits such as diet and exercise, traits that in adults are often influenced by childhood experience. Currently there are few studies that are able to address such questions. By measuring TL in children and young adults at large scale (minimum 2,900 per age group, 7, 17 and 24 years) we can more accurately explore the relationships between lifestyle and environment in childhood with TL. This will provide important information about how TL is influenced in early life and how early life exposures influence disease risk in adulthood through a biological ageing mechanism.

Impact of research: 
It is anticipated that this study will provide valuable insight into the environmental determinants of human LTL in early life and factors that influence telomere attrition in childhood. Together they will provide insight into how LTL mediated cardiovascular disease risk in adulthood is established in early life. Furthermore, the LTL measures generated will add to the phenotypes available within the ALSPAC cohort and will allow researchers to conduct future studies as the cohort ages to assess how childhood LTL relates to later life disease.
Date proposal received: 
Wednesday, 7 August, 2019
Date proposal approved: 
Monday, 12 August, 2019
Keywords: 
Epidemiology, Addiction - e.g. alcohol, illicit drugs, smoking, gambling, etc., Behaviour - e.g. antisocial behaviour, risk behaviour, etc., Cancer, Cognitive impairment, Diabetes, Hypertension, Mental health, Pregnancy - e.g. reproductive health, postnatal depression, birth outcomes, etc., Respiratory - asthma, Telomere length measurement, Ageing, Biomarkers - e.g. cotinine, fatty acids, haemoglobin, etc., Cardiovascular, Genome wide association study, Mothers - maternal age, menopause, obstetrics, Physical - activity, fitness, function, Telomere