A possible new mechanism in the pathophysiology of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): The discovery that leukocyte telomere length is strongly associated with PCOS

Abstract

Context: Telomeres are specialized chromatin structures located at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, and telomere length plays a clear role in various diseases. However, it is not known whether telomere length is related to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Objective: We hypothesized that leukocyte telomere length (LTL) plays an important role in the pathophysiology of PCOS. Design:Weused an established and validated quantitative PCR technique to measure themeanLTL in a large sample of PCOS patients and controls. We used logistic regression and multiple linear regression to analyze the association of PCOS and several related clinical parameters with the age-adjusted ratio of the telomere repeat length to the copy number of a single-copy gene (T/S). Results: Individuals with PCOS (n=698) exhibited significantly shorter LTLs than the controls (n=611) after adjusting for age (0.764 ± 0.016 vs 0.876 ± 0.023; P = .001; odds ratio = 1.403; 95% confidence interval, 1.150-1.712). The mean telomere length in the leukocytes of PCOS patients was comparable tothatofcontrolindividualswhowereonaverage6.16yearsolder. Individualshavingshortertelomere lengths (middle and lowest tertile) had significantly higher disease risk than those having the longest telomere length (highest tertile) (odds ratio=1.614; 95% confidence interval, 1.262-2.066; P=.0001) after adjusting for age. In addition, a significant correlation between the LTL and the level of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate was observed in controls (r=-0.185; P = .01). Conclusion: We provide the first report that LTL is strongly associated with PCOS. This study suggests a new role for LTL in the pathophysiology of PCOS and might have important implications for our understanding of the etiology of the disease. Copyright © 2014 by the Endocrine Society.