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dc.contributor.authorHoxha, Mirjam
dc.contributor.authorDioni, Laura
dc.contributor.authorMcCracken, John Patrick
dc.contributor.authorBaccarelli, Andrea
dc.contributor.authorMelly, Steven John
dc.contributor.authorCoull, Brent Andrew
dc.contributor.authorSuh MacIntosh, Helen H.
dc.contributor.authorVokonas, Pantel S
dc.contributor.authorSchwartz, Joel David
dc.date.accessioned2011-05-19T20:07:40Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.identifier.citationMcCracken, John, Andrea Baccarelli, Mirjam Hoxha, Laura Dioni, Steve Melly, Brent Coull, Helen Suh, Pantel Vokonas, and Joel Schwartz. 2010. Annual Ambient Black Carbon Associated with Shorter Telomeres in Elderly Men: Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study. Environmental Health Perspectives 118(11): 1564-1570.en_US
dc.identifier.issn0091-6765en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4892363
dc.description.abstractBackground: Telomere length reflects biological age and is inversely associated with risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Ambient air pollution is associated with CVD, but its effect on telomere length is unknown. Objective: We investigated whether ambient black carbon (BC), a marker for traffic-related particles, is associated with telomere length in the Normative Aging Study (NAS). Methods: Among 165 never-smoking men from the NAS, leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was measured repeatedly approximately every 3 years from 1999 through 2006 using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). BC concentration at their residences during the year before each LTL measurement was estimated based on a spatiotemporal model calibrated with BC measurements from 82 locations within the study area. Results: The median [interquartile range (IQR)] annual moving-average BC concentration was 0.32 (0.20–0.45) μg/m3. LTL, expressed as population-standardized ratio of telomere repeat to single-copy gene copy numbers, had a geometric mean (geometric SD) of 1.25 (1.42). We used linear mixed-effects models including random subject intercepts and adjusted for several potential confounders. We used inverse probability of response weighting to adjust for potential selection bias due to loss to follow-up. An IQR increase in annual BC (0.25 μg/m3) was associated with a 7.6% decrease (95% confidence interval, −12.8 to −2.1) in LTL. We found evidence of effect modification, with a stronger association among subjects ≥ 75 years of age compared with younger participants (p = 0.050) and statin medications appearing protective of the effects of BC on LTL (p = 0.050). Conclusions: Telomere attrition, linked to biological aging, may be associated with long-term exposures to airborne particles, particularly those rich in BC, which are primarily related to automobile traffic.en_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciencesen_US
dc.relation.isversionofdoi:10.1289/ehp.0901831en_US
dc.relation.hasversionhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2974694/pdf/en_US
dash.licenseLAA
dc.subjectair pollutionen_US
dc.subjectbiological agingen_US
dc.subjectcardiovascular physiologyen_US
dc.subjectenvironmental exposureen_US
dc.subjectepigenetic processen_US
dc.subjectparticlesen_US
dc.subjecttrafficen_US
dc.subjectvehicle emissionsen_US
dc.titleAnnual Ambient Black Carbon Associated with Shorter Telomeres in Elderly Men: Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Studyen_US
dc.typeJournal Articleen_US
dc.description.versionVersion of Recorden_US
dc.relation.journalEnvironmental Health Perspectivesen_US
dash.depositing.authorMcCracken, John Patrick
dc.date.available2011-05-19T20:07:40Z
dash.affiliation.otherSPH^Exposure Epidemiology and Risk Programen_US
dash.affiliation.otherSPH^Exposure Epidemiology and Risk Programen_US
dash.affiliation.otherSPH^Exposure Epidemiology and Risk Programen_US
dash.affiliation.otherSPH^Biostatisticsen_US
dash.affiliation.otherHMS^Medicine-Brigham and Women's Hospitalen_US
dash.affiliation.otherSPH^Exposure Epidemiology and Risk Programen_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1289/ehp.0901831*
dash.authorsorderedfalse
dash.contributor.affiliatedMcCracken, John Patrick
dash.contributor.affiliatedSuh MacIntosh, Helen H.
dash.contributor.affiliatedVokonas, Pantel
dash.contributor.affiliatedMelly, Steven
dash.contributor.affiliatedBaccarelli, Andrea
dash.contributor.affiliatedCoull, Brent
dash.contributor.affiliatedSchwartz, Joel
dc.identifier.orcid0000-0002-3436-0640
dc.identifier.orcid0000-0002-2557-150X


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