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Title
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Longer leukocyte telomere length is associated with smaller hippocampal volume among non-demented APOE subjects
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Author
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Abstract
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| Telomere length shortens with cellular division, and leukocyte telomere length is used as a marker for systemic telomere length. The hippocampus hosts adult neurogenesis and is an important structure for episodic memory, and carriers of the apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 allele exhibit higher hippocampal atrophy rates and differing telomere dynamics compared with non-carriers. The authors investigated whether leukocyte telomere length was associated with hippocampal volume in 57 cognitively intact subjects (29 epsilon 3/epsilon 3 carriers; 28 epsilon 4 carriers) aged 49-79 yr. Leukocyte telomere length correlated inversely with left (r(s) = -0.465; p = 0.011), right (r(s) = -0.414; p = 0.025), and total hippocampus volume (r(s) = -0.519; p = 0.004) among APOE epsilon 3/epsilon 3 carriers, but not among epsilon 4 carriers. However, the epsilon 4 carriers fit with the general correlation pattern exhibited by the epsilon 3/epsilon 3 carriers, as epsilon 4 carriers on average had longer telomeres and smaller hippocampi compared with epsilon 3/epsilon 3 carriers. The relationship observed can be interpreted as long telomeres representing a history of relatively low cellular proliferation, reflected in smaller hippocampal volumes. The results support the potential of leukocyte telomere length being used as a biomarker for tapping functional and structural processes of the aging brain. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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PLoS ONE
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Publication
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2012
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ISSN
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1932-6203
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DOI
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10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0034292
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Volume/pages
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7
:4
(2012)
, p. e34292,1-e34292,5
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Article Reference
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e34292
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ISI
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000305297500024
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Medium
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E-only publicatie
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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Full text (open access)
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