Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/14953
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dc.contributor.authorVasu, V-
dc.contributor.authorTurner, KJ-
dc.contributor.authorGeorge, S-
dc.contributor.authorGreenall, J-
dc.contributor.authorSlijepcevic, P-
dc.contributor.authorGriffin, DK-
dc.contributor.editorSaretzki, G-
dc.date.accessioned2017-07-25T12:21:21Z-
dc.date.available2017-06-28-
dc.date.available2017-07-25T12:21:21Z-
dc.date.issued2017-06-28-
dc.identifiere0180082-
dc.identifier.citationVasu, V., Turner, K.J., George, S., Greenall, J., Slijepcevic, P., Griffin, D.K. and Saretzki, G. (2017) 'Preterm infants have significantly longer telomeres than their term born counterparts', PLOS ONE, 12(6), e0180082, pp. 1-16, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180082.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203-
dc.identifier.urihttps://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/14953-
dc.description.abstractCopyright: © 2017 Vasu et al. There are well-established morbidities associated with preterm birth including respiratory, neurocognitive and developmental disorders. However several others have recently emerged that characterise an ‘aged’ phenotype in the preterm infant by term-equivalent age. These include hypertension, insulin resistance and altered body fat distribution. Evidence shows that these morbidities persist into adult life, posing a significant public health concern. In this study, we measured relative telomere length in leukocytes as an indicator of biological ageing in 25 preterm infants at term equivalent age. Comparing our measurements with those from 22 preterm infants sampled at birth and from 31 term-born infants, we tested the hypothesis that by term equivalent age, preterm infants have significantly shorter telomeres (thus suggesting that they are prematurely aged). Our results demonstrate that relative telomere length is highly variable in newborn infants and is significantly negatively correlated with gestational age and birth weight in preterm infants. Further, longitudinal assessment in preterm infants who had telomere length measurements available at both birth and term age (n = 5) suggests that telomere attrition rate is negatively correlated with increasing gestational age. Contrary to our initial hypothesis however, relative telomere length was significantly shortest in the term born control group compared to both preterm groups and longest in the preterm at birth group. In addition, telomere lengths were not significantly different between preterm infants sampled at birth and those sampled at term equivalent age. These results indicate that other, as yet undetermined, factors may influence telomere length in the preterm born infant and raise the intriguing hypothesis that as preterm gestation declines, telomere attrition rate increases.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was supported from the Medical Research Council (GB) (case studentship sponsored by Digital Scientific UK) and via an East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust internal project grant scheme award is acknowledged. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.en_US
dc.format.extent1 - 16-
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_US
dc.rightsCopyright: © 2017 Vasu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.-
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/-
dc.subjectTelomeresen_US
dc.subjectInfantsen_US
dc.subjectPreterm birthen_US
dc.subjectBirth weighten_US
dc.subjectNeonatesen_US
dc.subjectBlooden_US
dc.subjectMorbidityen_US
dc.subjectWhite blood cellsen_US
dc.titlePreterm infants have significantly longer telomeres than their term born counterpartsen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180082-
dc.relation.isPartOfPLOS ONE-
pubs.issue6-
pubs.publication-statusPublished-
pubs.volume12-
Appears in Collections:Dept of Life Sciences Research Papers

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