Telomere length in patients with alcohol-associated liver disease: a brief report.

Abstract

The intact telomere structure is essential for the prevention of the chromosome end-to-end fusions and maintaining genomic integrity. The maintenance of telomere length is critical for cellular homeostasis. The shortening of telomeres has been reported in patients with chronic liver diseases. The telomere length has not been systemically studied in patients with alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) at different stages, such as alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis. In this brief report, we observed evidence of telomere shortening without changes in the telomerase activity in the liver of patients with alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis when compared with controls. The alterations in the genes associated with telomere binding proteins were only observed in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. Future studies are required to determine the mechanism of how alcohol affects the length of the telomere and if the shortening impacts the disease progression in ALD.

• Authors: Nazmul Huda, Praveen Kusumanchi, Kristina Perez, Yanchao Jiang, Nicholas J Skill, Zhaoli Sun, Jing Ma, Zhihong Yang, Suthat Liangpunsakul
• Journal: Journal of investigative medicine : the official publication of the American Federation for Clinical Research (J Investig Med) Vol. 70 Issue 6 Pg. 1438-1441 (08 2022) ISSN: 1708-8267 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 35246468 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.)
• Copyright: © American Federation for Medical Research 2022. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Chemical References

• Telomerase

Topics

• Hepatitis, Alcoholic
• Humans
• Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic (genetics)
• Liver Diseases, Alcoholic (genetics)
• Telomerase (genetics, metabolism)
• Telomere (metabolism)
• Telomere Shortening