There is growing interest in the use of telomere length as a biomarker of health and a predictor of later morbidity and mortality. However, little is known about developmentally expected telomere erosion over the first years of life. This gap hinders our ability to interpret the meaning of relative telomere length and rate of attrition in relation to risk factors and health outcomes. The overall goal of this study was to examine the rate of relative telomere length attrition in a large, normative sample of healthy children (N = 630) followed from infancy to three years of age. A secondary goal was to explore associations between sociodemographic characteristics and telomere erosion over this time period. Relative telomere length was assessed from DNA in saliva samples collected in infancy (M = 8.6 months), age 2 years (M = 25.2 months), and age 3 years (M = 38.3 months). In the sample as a whole, relative telomere length decreased from infancy to 2 years but remained stable from 2 years to 3 years. Notably, increases in relative telomere length were observed in 29 % of children between infancy and 2 years of age and in 46 % of children between 2 and 3 years of age; 62 % of children showed both increases and decreases in relative telomere length across the study period. Females showed longer relative telomere length than males, regardless of timepoint. There was some evidence that parental age and family finances were associated with changes in child relative telomere length across time. Overall, the findings suggest that telomere length attrition is not uniform across the early years of life, with the most rapid attrition occurring during the first two years, and that increases as well as decreases in telomere length during this period are commonly observed.

中文翻译：

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健康儿童头三年端粒长度的变化模式

人们越来越关注使用端粒长度作为健康的生物标志物和后期发病率和死亡率的预测指标。然而，人们对生命最初几年发育预期的端粒侵蚀知之甚少。这种差距阻碍了我们解释与风险因素和健康结果相关的相对端粒长度和磨损率的含义的能力。本研究的总体目标是检查健康儿童（N = 630）从婴儿到三岁的大型规范样本中的相对端粒长度磨损率。第二个目标是探索这段时间社会人口学特征与端粒侵蚀之间的关联。从婴儿期（M = 8.6 个月）、2 岁（M = 25.2 个月）、和年龄 3 岁（M = 38.3 个月）。在整个样本中，相对端粒长度从婴儿期到 2 年减少，但从 2 年到 3 年保持稳定。值得注意的是，在 29% 的婴儿至 2 岁儿童和 46% 的 2 至 3 岁儿童中观察到相对端粒长度增加；在整个研究期间，62% 的儿童表现出相对端粒长度的增加和减少。无论时间点如何，女性都显示出比男性更长的相对端粒长度。有证据表明，父母的年龄和家庭财务状况与儿童相对端粒长度随时间的变化有关。总体而言，研究结果表明，端粒长度的磨损在生命的早期并不均匀，在头两年发生的磨损最快，