Leukocyte telomere length is associated with elevated plasma glucose and HbA1c in young healthy men independent of birth weight.

Telomeres are protein-bound regions of repetitive nucleotide sequences (TTAGGG) at the end of human chromosomes, and their length is a marker of cellular aging. Intrauterine growth restriction is associated with shorter blood cell telomeres at birth and individuals with type 2 diabetes have shorter telomeres. Individuals with a low birth weight (LBW) have an increased risk of metabolic disease and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the relationship between birth weight and telomere length and the association between birth weight, telomere length and cardiometabolic phenotype in adulthood. Young, healthy men with LBW (n = 55) and normal birth weight (NBW) (n = 65) were examined including blood pressure, blood samples and body composition. Leukocyte telomere length was determined using a high-throughput qPCR method. The LBW men were more insulin resistant as determined by the HOMA-IR index. There was no difference in telomere length between LBW and NBW subjects. When adjusting for birth weight and cohort effect, significant negative associations between telomere length and fasting glucose (P = 0.003) and HbA1c (P = 0.0008) were found. In conclusion, no significant difference in telomere length was found between LBW and NBW men. The telomere length was negatively associated with glucose concentrations and HbA1c levels within the normal non-diabetic range independent of birth weight.

Gestational Age and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Trends in Risk Over Time.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a serious neurodevelopmental disorder. Several previous studies have identified preterm birth as a risk factor for ASD but none has studied whether the association between gestational age and ASD has changed over time. This is a Danish population-based follow-up study including live-born singletons born in Denmark between 1980 and 2009, identified in the Danish Medical Birth Registry, a study population of 1,775,397 children. We used a Cox regression model combined with spline to study the risk for ASD by gestational age across three decades of birth cohorts. We included 19,020 children diagnosed with ASD. Across all birth year cohorts, we found that the risk of being diagnosed with ASD increased with lower gestational age (P-value: <0.01). Across all gestational weeks, we found a statistically significant higher risk estimates in birth cohort 1980 to 1989, compared to birth cohorts 1990 to 1999 and 2000 to 2009, respectively. No statistically significant difference in risk estimates was observed between birth cohort 1990 to 1999 and 2000 to 2009. The observed time trend in risk of ASD after preterm birth may reflect: (1) a change in the risk profile of persons with ASD due to the broadening of ASD diagnostic criteria over time; or (2) improved neonatal care for low GA infants, which has reduced risk of adverse outcomes like ASD in preterm children.

Epidemiology of herpesvirus and respiratory virus infections. Part 1. Serologic findings.

The majority of the population group studied had complement-fixation antibodies toward the following viruses: influenza type A, respiratory syncytial, cytomegalovirus, and Epstein-Barr. The herpesvirus infections (cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus) seemed to be prevalent. Only low incidences of antibodies were found toward adenovirus, influenza type B, influenza type C, and parainfluenza type II. A total of 70 aucte virus infections (increases of antibody titer) were diagnosed in 49 patients. Besides cytomegalovirus, no particular virus infection occurred in a large number. Only 11 of the 70 acute virus infections diagnosed serologically were accompanied by clinical signs of disease