TY - JOUR T1 - Gender and telomere length: systematic review and meta-analysis. JF - Exp Gerontol Y1 - 2014 A1 - Gardner, Michael A1 - Bann, David A1 - Wiley, Laura A1 - Cooper, Rachel A1 - Hardy, Rebecca A1 - Nitsch, Dorothea A1 - Martin-Ruiz, Carmen A1 - Shiels, Paul A1 - Sayer, Avan Aihie A1 - Barbieri, Michelangela A1 - Bekaert, Sofie A1 - Bischoff, Claus A1 - Brooks-Wilson, Angela A1 - Chen, Wei A1 - Cooper, Cyrus A1 - Christensen, Kaare A1 - De Meyer, Tim A1 - Deary, Ian A1 - Der, Geoff A1 - Diez Roux, Ana A1 - Fitzpatrick, Annette A1 - Hajat, Anjum A1 - Halaschek-Wiener, Julius A1 - Harris, Sarah A1 - Hunt, Steven C A1 - Jagger, Carol A1 - Jeon, Hyo-Sung A1 - Kaplan, Robert A1 - Kimura, Masayuki A1 - Lansdorp, Peter A1 - Li, Changyong A1 - Maeda, Toyoki A1 - Mangino, Massimo A1 - Nawrot, Tim S A1 - Nilsson, Peter A1 - Nordfjall, Katarina A1 - Paolisso, Giuseppe A1 - Ren, Fu A1 - Riabowol, Karl A1 - Robertson, Tony A1 - Roos, Goran A1 - Staessen, Jan A A1 - Spector, Tim A1 - Tang, Nelson A1 - Unryn, Brad A1 - van der Harst, Pim A1 - Woo, Jean A1 - Xing, Chao A1 - Yadegarfar, Mohammad E A1 - Park, Jae Yong A1 - Young, Neal A1 - Kuh, Diana A1 - von Zglinicki, Thomas A1 - Ben-Shlomo, Yoav KW - Adult KW - Aged KW - Aged, 80 and over KW - Aging KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Male KW - Middle Aged KW - Sex Factors KW - Telomere AB -

BACKGROUND: It is widely believed that females have longer telomeres than males, although results from studies have been contradictory.

METHODS: We carried out a systematic review and meta-analyses to test the hypothesis that in humans, females have longer telomeres than males and that this association becomes stronger with increasing age. Searches were conducted in EMBASE and MEDLINE (by November 2009) and additional datasets were obtained from study investigators. Eligible observational studies measured telomeres for both females and males of any age, had a minimum sample size of 100 and included participants not part of a diseased group. We calculated summary estimates using random-effects meta-analyses. Heterogeneity between studies was investigated using sub-group analysis and meta-regression.

RESULTS: Meta-analyses from 36 cohorts (36,230 participants) showed that on average females had longer telomeres than males (standardised difference in telomere length between females and males 0.090, 95% CI 0.015, 0.166; age-adjusted). There was little evidence that these associations varied by age group (p=1.00) or cell type (p=0.29). However, the size of this difference did vary by measurement methods, with only Southern blot but neither real-time PCR nor Flow-FISH showing a significant difference. This difference was not associated with random measurement error.

CONCLUSIONS: Telomere length is longer in females than males, although this difference was not universally found in studies that did not use Southern blot methods. Further research on explanations for the methodological differences is required.

VL - 51 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24365661?dopt=Abstract ER -