Telomere Shortening of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells in Coronary Disease Patients with Metabolic Disorders

Objective Telomere shortening is correlated with cell turnover and aging, but it has been recently suggested to occur not only by aging but by several biochemical factors of metabolic disorders predisposing to atherosclerosis. Patients and Methods We compared telomere length of peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with the metabolic disorders, hypercholesterolemia (HC) and diabetes mellitus (DM), according to the presence or absence of coronary diseases. Results The results demonstrated that HC and/or DM patients with coronary diseases have significantly shorter telomere length than healthy controls (p=0.0014). Conclusion Telomere shortening may be involved in the mechanisms that promote coronary diseases under some circumstances of metabolic disorders. (Internal Medicine 42: 150-153, 2003)