Newborn telomere length predicts later life telomere length: Tracking telomere length from birth to child- and adulthood

Newborn telomere length and the early life origins of age-related disease

“…In this EBioMedicine article, Dries Martens and colleagues report that newborn telomere length (TL) predicts TL in early childhood and young adulthood and that relative position within the TL distribution remains stable over time for the majority of study participants [1]. This work builds on previous studies that found evidence of so-called tracking and fixed ranking of TL in adults [2] and adolescents and their parents [3].…”

“…In a study of four cohorts of adults, Benetos et al [2] observed correlations ranging from 0.91 to 0.96; and in a later study, the same group reported a correlation of 0.91 in adolescents and a correlation of 0.86 in their parents [3]. While these correlations are close to one, Martens et al [1] report lower correlations in two cohorts of newborns, ranging from 0.46 to 0.71. Differences in the strength of correlations observed across these studies could reflect differences in measurement technique, differences in the tissues examined, differences in the length of time between baseline and follow-up, and/or differences in the life stage examined.…”

“…Similar to the findings for tracking, evidence for fixed ranking is weaker for newborns than for adults. Benetos et al [2] report that just 5.9% of adults changed by two or more deciles in TL ranking, while Martens et al [1] report that up to 27.4% of newborns shifted TL ranking by at least two quintiles.…”

“…intervention, more work is needed to identify predictors of newborn and child TL; and novel approaches are needed to test the hypothesis that TL is programmed at birth. Finally, future studies should evaluate the extent to which differences in measurement techniques and tissue types may have contributed to differences in findings reported by Martens et al [1] and Benetos et al [2,3] Knowing whether TL is, in fact, more malleable in childhood than in adolescence or adulthood has important implications for the timing of interventions to promote healthy aging across the life course.…”

“…While the clinical utility of TL has yet to be established, studies like the one by Martens and colleagues [1] are informative for population health. When considered alongside prior research on tracking and ranking of TL in adolescents and adults, this study helps establish the critical role that early life conditions play in shaping the longitudinal trajectory of TL.…”