Differing patterns of peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length in rheumatologic diseases

Telomeres progressively shorten with repeated somatic tissue cell division, their length being an indicator of cellular ageing. Telomeric dysfunction may be implicated in a variety of diseases. We measured mean telomere length in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) from patients with various rheumatologic diseases. Mean PBL telomere length was measured using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) assay in a control population (n = 130; age range: 3–94 years) and in subjects diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA; n = 86; age range: 31–82 years), psoriatic arthritis (PA; n = 56; age range: 26–79 years) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS; n = 59; age range: 21–75 years). These diseases are associated with chronic systemic inflammatory activity. Telomere length was also quantified in subjects with osteoarthritis (OA; n = 34; age range: 43–82 years) and osteoporosis (OP; n = 35; age range: 59–95 years), diseases without a chronic systemic inflammatory component. Telomere length in OA showed no differences from age-matched controls (p = 0.234), but was significantly shorter in OP (p = 0.001). Telomere length was significantly longer than controls in RA (p = 0.015), PA (p < 0.001) and AS (p < 0.001). Different patterns in telomere length from PBL are evidenced in rheumatologic pathologies, possibly dependent on the presence or absence of chronic systemic inflammation.