SynthesisEuropean journal of human genetics : EJHG2013
Meta-analysis of telomere length in 19,713 subjects reveals high heritability, stronger maternal inheritance and a paternal age effect.
Synthesis in European journal of human genetics : EJHG, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 255 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
255 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 464 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of Telomere Length and Telomerase Activity in Preeclampsia: Maternal, Placental, and Cord Blood Perspectives.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Parental Age Effects on Offspring Telomere Length Across Vertebrates: A Meta-Analysis.Molecular ecology · 2026Pooled it
- Maternal smoking during pregnancy and newborn telomere length (TL): a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Pooled it
- Telomere Length in Patients with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Normoglycemic Pregnant Women: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2024Pooled it
- Alcohol use disorder is associated with DNA methylation-based shortening of telomere length and regulated by TESPA1: implications for aging.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Leukocyte telomere length in patients with schizophrenia and related disorders: a meta-analysis of case-control studies.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Telomere Length and Pediatric Obesity: A Review.Genes · 2021Pooled it
- Body mass index is negatively associated with telomere length: a collaborative cross-sectional meta-analysis of 87 observational studies.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2018Pooled it
- The relationship between telomere length and mortality risk in non-model vertebrate systems: a meta-analysis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Pooled it
- Cigarette smoking and telomere length: A systematic review of 84 studies and meta-analysis.Environmental research · 2017Pooled it
- The Association Between Psychiatric Disorders and Telomere Length: A Meta-Analysis Involving 14,827 Persons.Psychosomatic medicine · 2016Pooled it
- Trial
- Telomere length and appendicular lean mass over six years in older adults with overweight or obesity and metabolic syndrome: a prospective cohort study.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Does Methadone AffectBalkan medical journal · 2026Article
- Telomere length dynamics do not predict subclinical atherosclerosis progression over a six-year period.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Single-molecule variation in telomeric sequence and structure across humans.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Leukocyte Telomere Length and Its Polygenic Risk Score in Post-Stroke Cognitive Impairment: Evidence From a Multicenter Cohort Study.Brain and behavior · 2026Observational
- Interactive effects of telomere length and genetic variants on Alzheimer disease risk across multiple ancestral populations.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2026Article
- Neighborhood built environment, psychosocial stressors, and telomere length of birth parents and their newborns from San Francisco, California.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2026Article
- Epidemiological approaches to refine biomarkers of aging.Nature aging · 2026Article
195 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
27 authors at 8 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Telomere length (TL) has been associated with aging and mortality, but individual differences are also influenced by genetic factors, with previous studies reporting heritability estimates ranging from 34 to 82%. Here we investigate the heritability, mode of inheritance and the influence of parental age at birth on TL in six large, independent cohort studies with a total of 19,713 participants. The meta-analysis estimate of TL heritability was 0.70 (95% CI 0.64-0.76) and is based on a pattern of results that is highly similar for twins and other family members. We observed a stronger mother-offspring (r=0.42; P-value=3.60 × 10(-61)) than father-offspring correlation (r=0.33; P-value=7.01 × 10(-5)), and a significant positive association with paternal age at offspring birth (β=0.005; P-value=7.01 × 10(-5)). Interestingly, a significant and quite substantial correlation in TL between spouses (r=0.25; P-value=2.82 × 10(-30)) was seen, which appeared stronger in older spouse pairs (mean age ≥55 years; r=0.31; P-value=4.27 × 10(-23)) than in younger pairs (mean age<55 years; r=0.20; P-value=3.24 × 10(-10)). In summary, we find a high and very consistent heritability estimate for TL, evidence for a maternal inheritance component and a positive association with paternal age.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.