RESEARCH - Osteoarthritis may indicate faster aging

[Guest guest]

Osteoarthritis May Indicate Faster Aging

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Oct 02 - Patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the

hand have shorter telomere lengths in leukocytes than subjects without OA,

suggesting that it may be an indicator of faster biologic aging, according

to a new report.

Increasing age is known to be the strongest risk factor for OA, but the

mechanisms underlying the association are unclear. Dr. Guangju Zhai, from

St. ' Hospital in London, and colleagues investigated whether

leukocyte telomere lengths (LTL), which is inversely associated with age,

differed between subjects with and without hand OA.

" To our knowledge, this is the first clinical study that relates telomere

length to subjects with osteoarthritis, " the investigators state.

The study, which is reported in the September 28th online issue of The

ls of the Rheumatic Diseases, involved 160 subjects with and 926 without

hand OA. The subjects, who were drawn from the TwinsUK Adult Twin Registry,

were nearly all female. Standard laboratory methods were used to assess LTL.

Consistent with previous reports, LTL was inversely linked to age, the

investigators note.

After adjusting for age, gender, BMI, and smoking, patients with OA had

significantly shorter LTLs than did their peers lacking the disease (p =

0.04), the report indicates. Moreover, as osteoarthritis worsened, the LTL

became shorter.

" Loss in LTL is associated with mild radiographic hand osteoarthritis and

increases with disease severity, suggesting potential shared mechanisms

between osteoarthritis and ageing, and implicating acquired factors, such as

oxidative stress and low-level chronic inflammation in both conditions, " the

authors conclude.

Ann Rheum Dis 2006.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/545427

Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org