The association of telomere length with paternal history of premature myocardial infarction in the European Atherosclerosis Research Study II

Inter-individual variability in telomere length is highly heritable and has been correlated with risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Our aim was to determine the association of mean leukocyte telomere length with paternal history of premature myocardial infarction (MI). Mean leukocyte telomere length was measured with real-time polymerase chain reactions in 369 male students (18–28 years) with a paternal history of MI before the age of 55, recruited from 14 European universities, serving as cases and 396 age-matched controls with no paternal history of CHD. Overall, cases had borderline significantly shorter mean length (~550 bp), adjusted for age and geographical region, than controls (p = 0.05). A significant difference in telomere length across the geographical regions of Europe was observed (p < 0.0001), with shorter mean length in the Baltic and South and the longest in the Middle. The case–control difference (∼2.24 kb) in mean length was highly significant only in the Baltic region (p < 0.0001). There is suggestive evidence that, in young men, the biological expression of a paternal history of premature MI is at least in part mediated through inherited short telomeres. The association with paternal history of MI is strongly seen only in the Baltic compared to the rest of Europe, but this is not explained by shorter telomere length in this region

Fasting Serum Triglyceride and High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels in Patients Intended to be Treated for Dyslipidemia

Genovefa D Kolovou1, Katherine Anagnostopoulou1, Nektarios D Pilatis1, Klelia D Salpea1, Ioannis S Hoursalas1, Ilias Petropoulos1, Helen I Bilianou2, Dennis V Cokkinos11Cardiology Department, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece; 2Cardiology Department, Tzanio State Hospital, Piraeus, GreeceObjective: The aim of the present investigation was to evaluate the influence of serum triglycerides (TG) on other plasma lipids in patients to be treated for dyslipidemia.Methodology: Lipid profiles of a cohort of 801 patients (487 males and 314 females) aged 57 &plusmn; 9 years (mean &plusmn; SD) were evaluated. Patients were stratified according to their plasma lipid levels. They were divided into various groups on the basis of serum TG (&ge; 150 or &lt; 150 mg/dL) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (&ge; 40 or &lt; 40 mg/dL).Results: Patients with TG &ge; 150 mg/dL had a higher total cholesterol and lower HDL-C levels compared with those with TG &lt; 150 mg/dL, (p &lt; 0.001). Patients with HDL-C &lt; 40 mg/dL had a lower serum total cholesterol and higher TG compared with those with HDL-C &ge; 40 mg/dL (p = 0.011 and p &lt; 0.0001, respectively). In all patients as well as in the subgroups, an inverse correlation between TG and HDL-C was found (r = &ndash;0.377, p &lt; 0.001).Conclusions: Although, the metabolic pathway for TG and HDL-C is closely linked, an inverse correlation between TG and HDL-C levels seems to exist in the entire sampled population. This correlation also appears to persist in fasting patients with low levels of TG.Keywords: triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, dyslipidemi

Postprandial lipemia in men with metabolic syndrome, hypertensives and healthy subjects

BACKGROUND: The metabolic syndrome (MetS), as well as postprandial hypertriglyceridemia, is associated with coronary heart disease. This study aimed to evaluate the postprandial lipemia after oral fat tolerance test (OFTT) in subjects with MetS and compare them to hypertensive (HTN) and healthy subjects. RESULTS: OFTT was given to 33 men with MetS (defined by the Adult Treatment Panel III), 17 HTN and 14 healthy men. The MetS group was further divided according to fasting triglycerides (TG) into TG ≥ 150 [MetS+TG, (n = 22)] or <150 mg/dl [MetS-TG (n = 11)], and into those with or without hypertension [MetS+HTN (n = 24), MetS-HTN (n = 9), respectively]. TG concentrations were measured before and at 4, 6 and 8 h after OFTT and the postprandial response was quantified using the area under the curve (AUC) for TG. The postprandial response was significantly higher in MetS compared to HTN and healthy men [AUC (SD) in mg/dl/h; 2534 ± 1016 vs. 1620 ± 494 and 1019 ± 280, respectively, p ≤ 0.001]. The TG levels were increased significantly in MetS+TG compared to MetS-TG subjects at 4 (p = 0.022), 6 (p < 0.001) and 8 hours (p < 0.001). The TG were increased significantly in MetS-TG compared to healthy subjects at 4 (p = 0.011), 6 (p = 0.001) and 8 hours (p = 0.015). In linear regression analysis only fasting TG levels were a significant predictor of the AUC (Coefficient B = 8.462, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Fasting TG concentration is the main determinant of postprandial lipemia. However, an exaggeration of TG postprandialy was found in normotriglyceridemic MetS and HTN compared to healthy subjects. This suggests that intervention to lower fasting TG levels should be recommended in MetS subjects

Telomeres are shorter in myocardial infarction patients compared to healthy subjects: correlation with environmental risk factors

Shorter telomeres have been reported in premature myocardial infarction (MI) patients. Our work aimed at confirming the association of shorter telomere with MI in two case–control studies and in familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). The HIFMECH study compared 598 white male patients (<60 years) who survived a first MI and 653 age-matched controls from North and South Europe. Additionally, from the UK, 413 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients and two groups of 367 and 94 FH patients, of whom 145 and 17 respectively had premature CHD, were recruited. Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was measured using a real-time polymerase chain reaction-based method. In HIFMECH, LTL was significantly shorter in subjects from the North (7.99 kb, SD 4.51) compared to the South (8.27 kb, SD 4.14; p = 0.02) and in cases (7.85 kb, SD 4.01) compared to controls (8.04 kb, SD 4.46; p = 0.04). In the CABG study, LTL was significantly shorter (6.89 kb, SD 4.14) compared to the HIFMECH UK controls (7.53, SD 5.29; p = 0.007). In both samples of FH patients, LTL was shorter in those with CHD (overall 8.68 kb, SD 4.65) compared to the non-CHD subjects (9.23 kb, SD 4.83; p = 0.012). Apart from a consistent negative correlation with age, LTL was not associated across studies with any measured CHD risk factors. The present data confirms that subjects with CHD have shorter telomeres than controls and extends this to those with monogenic and polygenic forms of CHD

Olive fly transcriptomics analysis implicates energy metabolism genes in spinosad resistance.

BackgroundThe olive fly, Bactrocera oleae, is the most devastating pest of cultivated olives. Its control has been traditionally based on insecticides, mainly organophosphates and pyrethroids. In recent years, the naturalyte spinosad is used against the olive fly. As with other insecticides, spinosad is subject to selection pressures that have led to resistance development. Mutations in the α6 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) have been implicated in spinosad resistance in several species (e.g., Drosophila melanogaster) but excluded in others (e.g., Musca domestica). Yet, additional mechanisms involving enhanced metabolism of detoxification enzymes (such as P450 monooxygenases or mixed function oxidases) have also been reported. In order to clarify the spinosad resistance mechanisms in the olive fly, we searched for mutations in the α6-subunit of the nAChR and for up-regulated genes in the entire transcriptome of spinosad resistant olive flies.ResultsThe olive fly α6-subunit of the nAChR was cloned from the laboratory sensitive strain and a spinosad selected resistant line. The differences reflected silent nucleotide substitutions or conserved amino acid changes. Additionally, whole transcriptome analysis was performed in the two strains in order to reveal any underlying resistance mechanisms. Comparison of over 13,000 genes showed that in spinosad resistant flies nine genes were significantly over-expressed, whereas ~40 were under-expressed. Further functional analyses of the nine over-expressed and eleven under-expressed loci were performed. Four of these loci (Yolk protein 2, ATP Synthase FO subunit 6, Low affinity cationic amino acid transporter 2 and Serine protease 6) showed consistently higher expression both in the spinosad resistant strain and in wild flies from a resistant California population. On the other side, two storage protein genes (HexL1 and Lsp1) and two heat-shock protein genes (Hsp70 and Hsp23) were unfailingly under-expressed in resistant flies.ConclusionThe observed nucleotide differences in the nAChR-α6 subunit between the sensitive and spinosad resistant olive fly strains did not advocate for the involvement of receptor mutations in spinosad resistance. Instead, the transcriptome comparison between the two strains indicated that several immune system loci as well as elevated energy requirements of the resistant flies might be necessary to lever the detoxification process

The Effect of Pro-Inflammatory Conditioning and/or High Glucose on Telomere Shortening of Aging Fibroblasts

<div><p>Cardiovascular disease and diabetes have been linked to shorter telomeres, but it is not yet clear which risk factors contribute to shorter telomeres in patients. Our aim was to examine whether pro-inflammatory conditioning, in combination or not with high glucose, result in a higher rate of telomere shortening during <i>in vitro</i> cellular ageing. Human fibroblasts from four donors were cultured for 90 days in: 1) medium lacking ascorbic acid only, 2) 10 mM buthionine sulphoximine (BSO) (pro-oxidant), 3) 25 mM D-glucose, 4) 1 ng/ml IL1B and 5) 25 mM D-glucose+1 ng/ml IL1B. Telomere length was measured with qPCR and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) content and cell death with flow cytometry. Cultures treated with high glucose and BSO displayed a significantly lower growth rate, and cultures treated with IL1B showed a trend towards a higher growth rate, compared to the control [Glucose:0.14 PD/day, p<0.001, BSO: 0.11 PD/day, p = 0.006 and IL1B: 0.19 PD/day, p = 0.093 vs. Control:0.16 PD/day]. Telomere shortening with time was significantly accelerated in cultures treated with IL1B compared to the control [IL1B:−0.8%/day (95%CI:−1.1, −0.5) vs. Control:−0.6%/day (95%CI:−0.8, −0.3), p = 0.012]. The hastening of telomere shortening by IL1B was only in part attenuated after adjustment for the number of cell divisions [IL1B:−4.1%/PD (95%CI:−5.7, −2.4) vs. Control:−2.5%/PD (95%CI:−4.4, −0.7), p = 0.067]. The intracellular ROS content displayed 69% increase (p = 0.033) in BSO compared to the control. In aging fibroblasts, pro-inflammatory conditioning aggravates the shortening of telomeres, an effect which was only in part driven by increased cell turnover. High glucose alone did not result in greater production of ROS or telomere shortening.</p></div

The cell death and intracellular ROS content as measured by flow cytometry after 7 days of culture in each treatment.

<p>The percentage of dying and dead cells is shown in panel A and the intracellular ROS content of viable cells in panel B. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0073756#pone-0073756-g004" target="_blank"><i>Figure 4</i></a><i>footnote</i>: Due to the small number of measurements, normal distribution cannot be inferred. Thus, the graph represents median values, with inter-quartile range as error bars. *P value is obtained from Kruskal-Wallis test. **P value is obtained from Mann-Whitney test. Mann-Whitney tests between the percentages of dying and dead cells in each of the treatments compared with the control were non-significant (p = 0.121).</p

Percentage changes in mean telomere length and mtDNA copies per nucleus over the time of culture (days) or cell divisions occurred during the experiment (CPD).

<p>%: percentage change, CPD: cumulative population doublings, mtDNA: mitochondrial DNA, IL1B: interleukin 1B, BSO: buthionine sulphoximine.</p><p>Percentage changes (%) in telomere length or mtDNA with days or CPD are obtained from separate regression models for each treatment adjusted for donor.</p><p>CPD per days are also obtained from separate regression models for each treatment adjusted for donor.</p><p>P values for the percentage changes (%) over days or CPD are obtained from regression models including all treatments as dummy variables compared to the control, adjusting for donor.</p