Observational studyAmerican journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council
Seasonal variation of peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length in Costa Rica: A population-based observational study.
Observational study in American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Physiological Rhythms and Biological Variation of Biomolecules: The Road to Personalized Laboratory Medicine.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Leucocyte telomere length and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: new prospective cohort study and literature-based meta-analysis.PloS one · 2014Pooled it
- Circulating cell-free DNA, telomere length and bilirubin in the Vienna Active Ageing Study: exploratory analysis of a randomized, controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2016Trial
- Childhood Adversity and Telomere Length.Biological research for nursing · 2025Article
- Demographic and health predictors of telomere length during adolescence.Developmental psychobiology · 2022Article
- Gender Differences in Perceived Stress and Its Relationship to Telomere Length in Costa Rican Adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Periconceptional environment predicts leukocyte telomere length in a cross-sectional study of 7-9 year old rural Gambian children.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Exposure–Response Associations of Household Air Pollution and Buccal Cell Telomere Length in Women Using Biomass Stoves.Environmental health perspectives · 2019Article
- Learning on the job, the use of selection, optimization, and compensation strategies, and their association with telomere length as an indicator of biological aging.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2019Article
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- Telomere Length and Neighborhood Circumstances: Evaluating Biological Response to Unfavorable Exposures.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2017Article
- The telomere lengthening conundrum - it could be biology.Aging cell · 2017Article
- Cumulative stress in research animals: Telomere attrition as a biomarker in a welfare context?BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesPeripheral blood leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is increasingly being used as a biomarker of aging, but its natural variation in human populations is not well understood. Several other biomarkers show seasonal variation, as do several determinants of LTL. We examined whether there was monthly variation in LTL in Costa Rica, a country with strong seasonal differences in precipitation and infection.
methodsWe examined a longitudinal population-based cohort of 581 Costa Rican adults age 60 and above, from which blood samples were drawn between October 2006 and July 2008. LTL was assayed from these samples using the quantitative PCR method. Multivariate regression models were used to examine correlations between month of blood draw and LTL.
resultsTelomere length from peripheral blood leukocytes varied by as much as 200 base pairs depending on month of blood draw, and this difference is not likely to be due to random variation. A moderate proportion of this association is statistically accounted for by month and region specific average rainfall. We found shorter telomere length associated with greater rainfall.
conclusionsThere are two possible explanations of our findings. First, there could be relatively rapid month-to-month changes in LTL. This conclusion would have implications for understanding the natural population dynamics of telomere length. Second, there could be seasonal differences in constituent cell populations. This conclusion would suggest that future studies of LTL use methods to account for the potential impact of constituent cell type.
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Registered trials
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