The risk of preschool asthma at 2-4 years is not associated with leukocyte telomere length at birth or at 1 year of age.

Abstract

BackgroundExposure to prenatal stress is associated with offspring allergic-disease development, and oxidative stress may mediate this relationship.ObjectiveWe aimed to evaluate whether leukocyte telomere length (LTL) shortening, a marker for exposure to oxidative stress, in early life is associated with increased risk of asthma development during the preschool period.MethodsWe assessed the follow-up clinical data of a subgroup from a birth cohort whose LTLs had been measured from cord-blood and 1-year peripheral-blood samples. We examined whether the LTLs would be associated with asthma development at the age of 2–4 years.ResultsThe data of 84 subjects were analyzed. LTLs were measured from the cord-blood and 1-year peripheral blood of 75 and 79 subjects, respectively. Among them, 14 subjects (16.7%) developed bronchial asthma between 2–4 years old. Prenatally stressed subjects had marginally increased odds of developing asthma (p = 0.097). There was no significant difference in the odds of preschool-asthma development between the groups with shorter and longer cord-blood LTLs (odds ratio [OR], 0.651; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.184–2.306) or in the odds between the groups with shorter and longer 1-year peripheral-blood LTLs (OR, 0.448; 95% CI, 0.135–1.483). Finally, subjects with both higher prenatal stress and shorter LTLs did not have significantly higher odds of preschool-asthma development (for cord-blood: OR, 1.242; 95% CI, 0.353–4.368; for 1-year peripheral-blood: OR, 1.451; 95% CI, 0.428–4.919).ConclusionThere was no significant association between early life LTLs and higher risk of bronchial-asthma development during the preschool years.