Telomere length assessment in blood leukocytes of patients with sarcoidosis

Hale Afshar; Atefeh Abedini; Seyed Alireza Nadji; Makan Sadr; Arda Kiani; Niloufar Alizadeh; Alireza Javadi

doi:10.36141/svdld.v38i1.10705

Telomere length assessment in blood leukocytes of patients with sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis Vasc Diffuse Lung Dis. 2021;38(1):e2021009. doi: 10.36141/svdld.v38i1.10705. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Authors

Hale Afshar¹, Atefeh Abedini², Seyed Alireza Nadji³, Makan Sadr³, Arda Kiani⁴, Niloufar Alizadeh², Alireza Javadi³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Hazrate Rasoole Akram Hospital , Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
² Chronic Respiratory Diseases Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Virology Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Tracheal Diseases Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Accelerated aging and telomere shortening have been studied in many chronic diseases such as interstitial pulmonary fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Different studies have shown that patients with these diseases have shorter telomere lengths than controls; this can be a marker of the progression and outcome of the disease. So far, a few studies have been evaluated the telomere length in sarcoidosis. In this study we determine the telomere length in patients with sarcoidosis and compare it with control subjects.

Objective: Our aim is to compare telomere length in patients with sarcoidosis and normal population. Methods: We select 58 patients with sarcoidosis who were visited in the sarcoidosis clinic of Masih Daneshvari Hospital. 58 sex and age-matched (with±2 years) healthy control subjects were selected. Telomere length was measured by quantitative real time PCR as described by Cawthon on peripheral blood sample. The telomere repeat copy number (T) to single-gene copy number(S) ratio was calculated using the comparative Ct method. Results: The mean and standard deviation of telomere length in the patient and control group was 0.65 ± 0.05 and 0.72 ± 0.07 respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups. (P = 0.031). Conclusion: Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease that can involve many organs. Like other chronic diseases, aging phenomenon occurs in that; which led to decrease cellular and tissue telomere length. This article demonstrates shorter telomere length in Iranian sarcoidosis patients compared to normal population.

Keywords: Telomere; aging; sarcoidosis.