The DOI matches its Crossref record; 45 of the 45 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Meta-analysis of telomere length in 19,713 subjects reveals high heritability, stronger maternal inheritance and a paternal age effect
Open accessAbstract
Telomere length (TL) has been associated with aging and mortality, but individual differences are also influenced by genetic factors, with previous studies reporting heritability estimates ranging from 34 to 82%. Here we investigate the heritability, mode of inheritance and the influence of parental age at birth on TL in six large, independent cohort studies with a total of 19,713 participants. The meta-analysis estimate of TL heritability was 0.70 (95% CI 0.64-0.76) and is based on a pattern of results that is highly similar for twins and other family members. We observed a stronger mother-offspring (r=0.42; P-value=3.60 × 10(-61)) than father-offspring correlation (r=0.33; P-value=7.01 × 10(-5)), and a significant positive association with paternal age at offspring birth (β=0.005; P-value=7.01 × 10(-5)). Interestingly, a significant and quite substantial correlation in TL between spouses (r=0.25; P-value=2.82 × 10(-30)) was seen, which appeared stronger in older spouse pairs (mean age ≥55 years; r=0.31; P-value=4.27 × 10(-23)) than in younger pairs (mean age<55 years; r=0.20; P-value=3.24 × 10(-10)). In summary, we find a high and very consistent heritability estimate for TL, evidence for a maternal inheritance component and a positive association with paternal age.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“In a recent meta-analysis, TL heritability was estimated to be 0.7 (Broer et al., 2013).”
From Psychiatric disorders and leukocyte telomere length: Underlying mechanisms linking mental illness with cellular aging (2015) · cites this paper as Broer et al., 2013
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Telomere measurement by quantitative PCR
Cawthon, R. (2002) · Nucleic Acids Research · doi:10.1093/nar/30.10.e47 · Cited by 3,538
Telomere length predicts replicative capacity of human fibroblasts.
Allsopp, R. C., Vaziri, H., Patterson, C., Goldstein, S., Younglai, E. V., Futcher, A. B., Greider, C. W., & Harley, C. B. (1992) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.89.21.10114 · Cited by 2,200
Switching and Signaling at the Telomere
Blackburn, E. H. (2001) · Cell · doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(01)00492-5 · Cited by 2,139
Rate of de novo mutations and the importance of father’s age to disease risk
Kong, A., Frigge, M. L., Masson, G., Besenbacher, S., Sulem, P., Magnusson, G., Gudjonsson, S. A., Sigurdsson, A., Jonasdottir, A., Jonasdottir, A., et al. (2012) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature11396 · Cited by 2,134
Association between telomere length in blood and mortality in people aged 60 years or older
Cawthon, R. M., Smith, K. R., O'Brien, E., Sivatchenko, A., & Kerber, R. A. (2003) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(03)12384-7 · Cited by 1,761
A telomerase component is defective in the human disease dyskeratosis congenita
Mitchell, J. R., Wood, E., & Collins, K. (1999) · Nature · doi:10.1038/990141 · Cited by 1,168
Blackburn, E. H., & Gall, J. G. (1978) · Journal of Molecular Biology · doi:10.1016/0022-2836(78)90294-2 · Cited by 1,023
Genetic determination of telomere size in humans: a twin study of three age groups.
Slagboom, P. E., Droog, S., & Boomsma, D. I. (1994) · PubMed Central · Cited by 734
Self-citationSequence variants at the TERT-CLPTM1L locus associate with many cancer types
Rafnar, Þ., Sulem, P., Stacey, S., Geller, F., Guðmundsson, J., Sigurðsson, Á., Jakobsdottir, M., Helgadottir, H. T., Thorlacius, S., Aben, K. K. H., et al. (2009) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/ng.296 · Cited by 609
Heritability of Cardiovascular and Personality Traits in 6,148 Sardinians
Pilia, G., Chen, W., Scuteri, A., Orrù, M., Albai, G., Dei, M., Lai, S., Usala, G., Lai, M., Loi, P., et al. (2006) · PLoS Genetics · doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0020132 · Cited by 551
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Sharma, R. K., Agarwal, A. K., Rohra, V. K., Assidi, M., Abu-Elmagd, M. M., & Turki, R. F. (2015) · Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology · doi:10.1186/s12958-015-0028-x · Cited by 486
Ageing and the telomere connection: An intimate relationship with inflammation
Zhang, J., Rane, G., Dai, X., Shanmugam, M. K., Arfuso, F., Samy, R. P., Lai, M. K. P., Kappei, D., Kumar, A. P., & Sethi, G. (2015) · Ageing Research Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.arr.2015.11.006 · Cited by 396
Polygenic basis and biomedical consequences of telomere length variation
Codd, V., Wang, Q., Allara, E., Musicha, C., Kaptoge, S. K., Stoma, S., Jiang, T., Hamby, S. E., Braund, P. S., Bountziouka, V., et al. (2021) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41588-021-00944-6 · Cited by 381
Self-citationMelzer, D. R., Pilling, L. C., & Ferrucci, L. (2019) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41576-019-0183-6 · Cited by 387
Arai, Y., Martin-Ruiz, C. M., Takayama, M., Abe, Y., Takebayashi, T., Koyasu, S., Suematsu, M., Hirose, N., & von Zglinicki, T. (2015) · EBioMedicine · doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2015.07.029 · Cited by 333
Metadata
- Authors
- Broer, L., Codd, V., Nyholt, D. R., Deelen, J., Mangino, M., Willemsen, G., Albrecht, E., Amin, N., Beekman, M., de Geus, E. J. C., Henders, A., Nelson, C. P., Steves, C. J., Wright, M. J., de Craen, A. J. M., Isaacs, A., Matthews, M., Moayyeri, A., Montgomery, G. W., Oostra, B. A., Vink, J. M., Spector, T. D., Slagboom, P. E., Martin, N. G., Samani, N. J., van Duijn, C. M., & Boomsma, D. I.
- Affiliations
- Leiden University Medical Center (NL)
- University of Leicester (GB)
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (AU)
- King's College London (GB)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Helmholtz Munich (DE)
- Erasmus MC (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Boomsma, Dorret I
- ORCID
- Broer, Linda
- Codd, Veryan
- Nyholt, Dale R
- Deelen, Joris
- Mangino, Massimo
- Willemsen, Gonneke
- Amin, Najaf
- Beekman, Marian
- Henders, Anjali
- Nelson, Christopher P
- Steves, Claire J
- Isaacs, Aaron
- Moayyeri, Alireza
- Montgomery, Grant W
- Vink, Jacqueline M
- Spector, Tim D
- Slagboom, P Eline
- Martin, Nicholas G
- Samani, Nilesh J
- Boomsma, Dorret I
- Venue
- European Journal of Human Genetics
- Published
- 2013-01-16
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1163-1168
- ISSN
- 1018-4813 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-5438
- PMC
- PMC3778341
- OpenAlex
- W2110405237
- Cited by
- 450
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 55 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 47 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 9
- FWCI
- 4.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- European Journal of Human Genetics (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
- RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Site cant be reached (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (FP7/2007–2013)
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (FP7/2007–2013)
- British Heart Foundation
- King's College London
- European Commission (FP7/2007-2011, 2007–2013, 230374, FP7 2007-2013, 201413, FP7/2007, 259679)
- ZonMw (Addiction‐31160008, Middelgroot‐911‐09‐032, 985-10-002, 400‐05‐717, 56-464-14192, 184.021.007, 904-61-193, 911‐09‐032, 904-61-090, 31160008, 480‐04‐004, 050-060-810)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (FP7/2007-2013, 2008.024)
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (184021007, 400‐05‐717, 050.060.810, 904-61-193, 904-61-090, FP7 2007-2013, 311-60008, 56‐464‐14192, Addiction-31160008, Spinozapremie 56-464-14192, 985-10002, 480-04-004, 904-61-090, 985-10-002)
- Centre for Medical Systems Biology
- Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre
- National Institutes of Health (FP7/2007-2013, 184.021.007, ERC 230374, 400-05-717)
- Medical Research Council
- Australian Research Council (FT0991022)
- National Health and Medical Research Council (496739, 619667)
- National Eye Institute
- FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (284167)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Keywords
- telomere length, heritability, maternal inheritance, paternal age, mode of inheritance, twin studies, family studies, aging, mortality
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Paternal Age, Pedigree, Twins, Case-Control Studies, Telomere, Inheritance Patterns, Telomere Shortening
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
