Telomere length and telomerase activity in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis

Fragkiadaki P, Nikitovic D, Kalliantasi K, Sarandi E, Thanasoula M, Stivaktakis PD, Nepka C, Spandidos DA, Tosounidis T, Tsatsakis A · Exp Ther Med

Assembles the human telomere studies in osteoarthritis: shorter chondrocyte telomeres at affected sites in 15 hip and 30 knee patients against 11 controls (Price 2002); leukocyte telomeres 178 bp shorter in 160 people with hand osteoarthritis against 926 without (Zhai 2006); no leukocyte difference in 34 patients against 130 controls (Tamayo 2010); chondrocyte telomeres shorter in 39 osteoarthritis patients than in 20 controls, and 1.6-fold longer than the same patients' leukocytes (Tamayo 2011); and in three osteoarthritic knees the load of short telomeres tracking distance from the lesion more closely than mean length (Harbo). Concludes that telomere shortening may contribute to osteoarthritis as an epigenetic factor and that larger cohorts are needed.

Population

Narrative review of telomere length and telomerase activity in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis

Intervention

n/a

Comparator

n/a

Limitations

Narrative review with no protocol; the human studies it pools are small cross-sectional comparisons and one of them found no difference. Funded by a university spin-off company (Toxplus S.A.) and the University of Crete; the senior author was editor-in-chief of the journal, with the review handled independently.