Telomeres and Reproductive Aging

Telomeres are special deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) structures that “cap” the ends of eukaryote chromosomes. The term telomere derives from the Greek words telos, meaning “end”, and meros meaning “part”. The existence of these end-parts of chromosomes was first suggested in 1938 by Muller (Muller, 1938). Telomere length is involved in biological aging and disease processes. Telomere length is affected by several factors, such as aging, aging related diseases, gender, genetic and environmental factors. Telomere length, which is a highly variable and heritable trait (Jeanclos et al., 2000; Slagboom et al., 1994; Nawrot et al., 2004; Vasa-Nicotera et al., 2005; Andrew et al., 2006; Biscoff et al., 2005), is greater in women than men (Jeanclos et al., 2000, Nawrot et al., 2004; Vasa-Nicotera et al., 2005; Biscoff et al., 2005, Benetos et al., 2001; Mayer et al., 2006; Fitzpatrick et al., 2007). As well as genetic factors environmental factors are also influential on leukocyte telomere dynamics. Environmental factors, including smoking (Nawrot et al., 2004; Valdes et al., 2005), obesity (Fitzpatrick et al., 2007; Valdes et al., 2005; Gardner et al., 2005), psychological stress (Epel et al., 2005) and low socio-economic status (Cherkas et al., 2006) are associated with shortened leukocyte telomere length. Leukocyte telomere length can be determined relatively easily and the processing of leukocytes is rather simple. Leukocyte telomere length has been studied extensively in humans in relation to both the aging process and several pathologies. There are many correlative studies demonstrating a link between telomere length and aging (Slagboom et al, 1994, Wu et al, 2003).