Association of shorter telomere length with essential hypertension in Indian population

Objectives: Essential hypertension is known to be associated with growth, development, and aging of humans. Telomeres are specialized nucleoprotein complexes consisting of tandem repeats of DNA sequences (TTAGGG)n that serve as protective caps of human chromosomes. Telomere length is considered as a biomarker of aging in somatic cells. In the present investigation, leukocyte telomere length was determined among hypertensive and normal individuals to find out the association, if any, with hypertension. Materials and Methods: Venous blood samples were collected from normal and hypertensive individuals with written informed consent approved by ethic committee of Department of Genetics, Osmania University Hyderabad, India. Genomic DNA was isolated from blood samples of 98 normal (age range: 30–70 years, mean age: 51.01 ± 10.12 years) and 96 hypertensive individuals (age range: 35–75 years, mean age: 49.18 ± 6.46 years). Using a SYBR green-based real time quantitative PCR relative telomere length was determined among these individuals. Results: The relative telomere length (T/S ratio) in hypertensive individuals was observed to be 0.91 ± 0.16 which was significantly different (P < 0.001) from normal individuals where the relative telomere length was 0.99 ± 0.13. No significant difference was observed between relative telomere length of male and female individuals, although there is negative correlation between age and telomere length was observed in both normal and hypertensive individuals. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure was negatively correlated with relative telomere length, though not significant. Conclusion: Shorter telomere length is associated with hypertensive individuals in Indian population. Am. J. Hum. Biol. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.