Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 15 pp 15196—15221
Inverse relationship between leukocyte telomere length attrition and blood mitochondrial DNA content loss over time
- 1 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6T 2B5, British Columbia, Canada
- 2 Centre for Blood Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6T 1Z3, British Columbia, Canada
- 3 Oak Tree Clinic, BC Women's Hospital, Vancouver V6H 3N1, British Columbia, Canada
- 4 Women's Health Research Institute, Vancouver V6H 2N9, British Columbia, Canada
- 5 Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V5Z 1M9, British Columbia, Canada
- 6 Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6H 0B3, British Columbia, Canada
- 7 Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1H 8L1, Ontario, Canada
- 8 Department of Pediatrics, Centre Hospitalier Universtaire Sainte-Justine, Université de Montréal, Montréal H3T 1C5, Quebec, Canada
- 9 Department of Pediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto M5G 1X8, Ontario, Canada
Received: January 30, 2020 Accepted: July 6, 2020 Published: July 23, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103703How to Cite
Copyright © 2020 Hsieh et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and whole blood mitochondrial DNA (WB mtDNA) content are aging markers impacted by chronic diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. We characterized the relationship between these two markers in 312 women ≥12 years of age living with HIV and 300 HIV-negative controls. We found no relationship between the two markers cross-sectionally. In multivariable models, age, ethnicity, HIV, and tobacco smoking were independently associated with shorter LTL, and the former three with lower WB mtDNA. Longitudinally, among a subgroup of 228 HIV participants and 68 HIV-negative controls with ≥2 biospecimens ≥1 year apart, an inverted pattern was observed between the rates of change in LTL and WB mtDNA content per year, whereby faster decline of one was associated with the preservation of the other. Furthermore, if HIV viral control was not maintained between visits, increased rates of both LTL attrition and WB mtDNA loss were observed. We describe a novel relationship between two established aging markers, whereby rates of change in LTL and WB mtDNA are inversely related. Our findings highlight the importance of maintaining HIV viral control, the complementary longitudinal relationship between the two markers, and the need to consider both in aging studies.