Telomere attrition due to infection.

<h4>Background</h4>Telomeres--the terminal caps of chromosomes--become shorter as individuals age, and there is much interest in determining what causes telomere attrition since this process may play a role in biological aging. The leading hypothesis is that telomere attrition is due to...

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Autores principales:	Petteri Ilmonen, Alexander Kotrschal, Dustin J Penn
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2008
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f110c4e00d354c819fe8a0e8c0deed06
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f110c4e00d354c819fe8a0e8c0deed062021-11-25T06:12:27ZTelomere attrition due to infection.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0002143https://doaj.org/article/f110c4e00d354c819fe8a0e8c0deed062008-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/18478110/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203<h4>Background</h4>Telomeres--the terminal caps of chromosomes--become shorter as individuals age, and there is much interest in determining what causes telomere attrition since this process may play a role in biological aging. The leading hypothesis is that telomere attrition is due to inflammation, exposure to infectious agents, and other types of oxidative stress, which damage telomeres and impair their repair mechanisms. Several lines of evidence support this hypothesis, including observational findings that people exposed to infectious diseases have shorter telomeres. Experimental tests are still needed, however, to distinguish whether infectious diseases actually cause telomere attrition or whether telomere attrition increases susceptibility to infection. Experiments are also needed to determine whether telomere erosion reduces longevity.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>We experimentally tested whether repeated exposure to an infectious agent, Salmonella enterica, causes telomere attrition in wild-derived house mice (Mus musculus musculus). We repeatedly infected mice with a genetically diverse cocktail of five different S. enterica strains over seven months, and compared changes in telomere length with sham-infected sibling controls. We measured changes in telomere length of white blood cells (WBC) after five infections using a real-time PCR method. Our results show that repeated Salmonella infections cause telomere attrition in WBCs, and particularly for males, which appeared less disease resistant than females. Interestingly, we also found that individuals having long WBC telomeres at early age were relatively disease resistant during later life. Finally, we found evidence that more rapid telomere attrition increases mortality risk, although this trend was not significant.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>Our results indicate that infectious diseases can cause telomere attrition, and support the idea that telomere length could provide a molecular biomarker for assessing exposure and ability to cope with infectious diseases.Petteri IlmonenAlexander KotrschalDustin J PennPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 3, Iss 5, p e2143 (2008)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Petteri Ilmonen Alexander Kotrschal Dustin J Penn Telomere attrition due to infection.
description	<h4>Background</h4>Telomeres--the terminal caps of chromosomes--become shorter as individuals age, and there is much interest in determining what causes telomere attrition since this process may play a role in biological aging. The leading hypothesis is that telomere attrition is due to inflammation, exposure to infectious agents, and other types of oxidative stress, which damage telomeres and impair their repair mechanisms. Several lines of evidence support this hypothesis, including observational findings that people exposed to infectious diseases have shorter telomeres. Experimental tests are still needed, however, to distinguish whether infectious diseases actually cause telomere attrition or whether telomere attrition increases susceptibility to infection. Experiments are also needed to determine whether telomere erosion reduces longevity.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>We experimentally tested whether repeated exposure to an infectious agent, Salmonella enterica, causes telomere attrition in wild-derived house mice (Mus musculus musculus). We repeatedly infected mice with a genetically diverse cocktail of five different S. enterica strains over seven months, and compared changes in telomere length with sham-infected sibling controls. We measured changes in telomere length of white blood cells (WBC) after five infections using a real-time PCR method. Our results show that repeated Salmonella infections cause telomere attrition in WBCs, and particularly for males, which appeared less disease resistant than females. Interestingly, we also found that individuals having long WBC telomeres at early age were relatively disease resistant during later life. Finally, we found evidence that more rapid telomere attrition increases mortality risk, although this trend was not significant.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>Our results indicate that infectious diseases can cause telomere attrition, and support the idea that telomere length could provide a molecular biomarker for assessing exposure and ability to cope with infectious diseases.
format	article
author	Petteri Ilmonen Alexander Kotrschal Dustin J Penn
author_facet	Petteri Ilmonen Alexander Kotrschal Dustin J Penn
author_sort	Petteri Ilmonen
title	Telomere attrition due to infection.
title_short	Telomere attrition due to infection.
title_full	Telomere attrition due to infection.
title_fullStr	Telomere attrition due to infection.
title_full_unstemmed	Telomere attrition due to infection.
title_sort	telomere attrition due to infection.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2008
url	https://doaj.org/article/f110c4e00d354c819fe8a0e8c0deed06
work_keys_str_mv	AT petteriilmonen telomereattritionduetoinfection AT alexanderkotrschal telomereattritionduetoinfection AT dustinjpenn telomereattritionduetoinfection
_version_	1718414079931973632

Telomere attrition due to infection.

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