CGPH FACULTY: William Dow
DATE OF PUBLICATION: May 2014
REGION: Latin America
REFERENCE: Rehkopf DH, Dow WH, Rosero-Bixby L, Lin J, Epel ES, Blackburn EH. Seasonal variation of peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length in Costa Rica: A population-based observational study. Am J Hum Biol. 2014 May;26(3):367-75. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.22529. Epub 2014 Feb 25.
SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: Peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is increasingly being used as a biomarker of aging, but its natural variation in human populations is not well understood. Several other biomarkers show seasonal variation, as do several determinants of LTL. We examined whether there was monthly variation in LTL in Costa Rica, a country with strong seasonal differences in precipitation and infection. There are two possible explanations of our findings. First, there could be relatively rapid month-to-month changes in LTL. This conclusion would have implications for understanding the natural population dynamics of telomere length. Second, there could be seasonal differences in constituent cell populations. This conclusion would suggest that future studies of LTL use methods to account for the potential impact of constituent cell type. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 26:367-375, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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