Table 1.

Human studies showing an association between telomere dysfunction and cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular risk factor or disease	Main findings	References
Gender	Adult men display lower telomerase activity.	92–94
Hypertension	Systo-diastolic hypertension inversely correlates with telomere length.	92,93,100
Type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance and obesity	Diabetic and/or insulin resistant patients and obese subjects have shorter telomeres.	78,92,95,98,99
Smoking	Sex- and age-adjusted telomere length is shorter in smokers.	95–97
Atherosclerosis	Age-dependent telomere shortening characterizes fibrous cap and endothelial cells from iliac, thoracic, carotid, and coronary arteries.	74,76,79,86
Ischaemic and non-ischaemic heart failure	Telomere shortening, TRF-2 downregulation, and apoptosis accelerate end-stage heart failure.	29,88
Cardiac hyperthrophy	Telomere shortening and low telomerase activity worsen the development of pathologic cardiac remodelling with fibrosis after pressure and volume cardiac overload.	77,89
Premature myocardial infarction	Shorter telomere length and low telomerase activity increase the risk of premature myocardial infarction.	75

TRF-2, telomere restriction fragment 2.