Smoking, telomere length and lung function decline: a longitudinal population-based study

Pascal Andujar (1, 2, 3) , Dominique Courbon (4, 5) , Emilie Bizard (2) , Elisabeth Marcos (2) , Serge Adnot (1, 2, 6) , Laurent Boyer (1, 2, 6) , Pascal Demoly (7, 8) , Debbie L. Jarvis , Catherine Neukirch (4, 9) , Isabelle Pin (10, 11, 12) , Gabriel Thabut (4, 13) , Jorge Boczkowski (1, 2, 6) , Bénédicte Leynaert (4, 5)

1 UPEC Médecine - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Faculté de médecine
2 IMRB - Institut Mondor de Recherche Biomédicale
3 Service de Pneumologie [CHI Créteil]
4 PHERE (UMR_S_1152 / U1152) - Physiopathologie et Epidémiologie des Maladies Respiratoires
5 UPD7 - Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7
6 Hôpital Henri Mondor
7 Service d'allergologie et de pneumologie [Hôpital Arnaud de Villeneuve]
8 iPLESP - Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique
9 Service de Pneumologie A [Paris]
10 UGA [2016-2019] - Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019]
11 INSERM U823 - Institut d'oncologie/développement Albert Bonniot de Grenoble
12 CHUGA - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire [CHU Grenoble]
13 Service de pneumologie B

Telomere shortening is associated with COPD and impaired lung function in cross-sectional studies, but there is no longitudinal study. We used data from 448 participants recruited as part of the French follow-up of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. We found no relationship between telomere length at baseline and FEV1decline after 11 years of follow-up. However, heavy smoking was associated with an accelerated FEV1decline in individuals with short telomeres, but not in subjects with longer telomeres (p for interaction p=0.08). Our findings suggest that short telomere length in peripheral leucocytes might be a marker for increased susceptibility to the effect of smoking.

Mots clés: COPD epidemiology; Tobacco and the lung

Domaines: Pneumologie et système respiratoire

Pascal Andujar, Dominique Courbon, Emilie Bizard, Elisabeth Marcos, Serge Adnot, et al.. Smoking, telomere length and lung function decline: a longitudinal population-based study. Thorax, 2018, 73 (3), pp.283 - 285. ⟨10.1136/thoraxjnl-2017-210294⟩. ⟨hal-01758291⟩