Telomere length and risk of Parkinson's disease

Abstract
We investigated whether telomere length was associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in a case‐control study (96 cases and 172 age‐matched controls) nested within the Health Professionals Follow‐up Study. Relative ratio of telomere repeat copy number to single‐gene copy number in peripheral blood leukocytes was determined by quantitative real time PCR. Men with shorter telomeres had a lower PD risk (multivariate adjusted relative risk for the lowest vs. the highest quartile 0.33; 95% confidence interval: 0.12–0.90). Our results suggest that, contrary to telomere attrition observed in several aging‐related diseases, shorter telomeres are not associated with an increased risk of PD. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society