Short telomere length and its association with risk for COPD and emphysema severity: Korean Obstructive Lung Disease (KOLD) cohort study

Background: The age-dependent increase of COPD prevalence suggests an intimate relationship between the process of aging and the development of COPD. Although it remains incompletely understood how the aging process and COPD are interrelated, some previous studies reported the role of telomere length shortening. We aimed to investigate the association between telomere length and COPD as well as its correlation with CT-measured emphysema severity. Method: We measured telomere length of peripheral blood mononuclear cells using a real-time polymerase chain reaction-based method in 150 patients with COPD and 102 control subjects with normal lung function. The telomere lengths were standardized to the reference single copy gene (T/S). CT-determined emphysema index (percentage area of lung with attenuation values below -950HU) and wall area percent (WA%) were also assessed. Results: Mean telomere length (T/S ratio) was significantly lower in patients with COPD than in control (0.46 ± 0.44 vs 0.94 ± 0.49; p Conclusion: Telomere shortening is associated with COPD and emphysema severity. These results support that accelerated aging is of particular relevance to COPD.