Paternal age and telomere length in twins: the germ stem cell selection paradigm |
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| Authors: | Jacob B Hjelmborg Christine Dalgård Massimo Mangino Tim D Spector Ulrich Halekoh Sören Möller Masayuki Kimura Kent Horvath Jeremy D Kark Kaare Christensen Kirsten O Kyvik Abraham Aviv |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Biodemography, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark;2. The Danish Twin Registry, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark;3. Department of Environmental Medicine, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark;4. Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK;5. Center of Human Development and Aging, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA;6. Epidemiology Unit, Hebrew University‐Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel;7. Institute of Regional Health Services Research, University of Southern Denmark and Odense Patient data Explorative Network (OPEN), Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark |
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| Abstract: | Telomere length, a highly heritable trait, is longer in offspring of older fathers. This perplexing feature has been attributed to the longer telomeres in sperm of older men and it might be an ‘epigenetic’ mechanism through which paternal age plays a role in telomere length regulation in humans. Based on two independent (discovery and replication) twin studies, comprising 889 twin pairs, we show an increase in the resemblance of leukocyte telomere length between dizygotic twins of older fathers, which is not seen in monozygotic twins. This phenomenon might result from a paternal age‐dependent germ stem cell selection process, whereby the selected stem cells have longer telomeres, are more homogenous with respect to telomere length, and share resistance to aging. |
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| Keywords: | telomeres twins father's age germ line heritability leukocytes |
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