Telomere length variation reduces with age: evidence of survivor effect

Telomere shortening has been associated with aging and mortality but findings are inconsistent. A reason for inconsistencies may be a reduced variance in telomere length in the elderly: a survivor effect. A previous study attributed this survivor effect to a selection against those with short and with long telomeres. Using a multigenerational design in the Erasmus Rucphen Family (ERF) study we aimed to explore the variability of telomere length in different age-categories. Building upon the high heritability of telomere length, we next used the telomere length of the (grand)children of the oldest-old as a proxy for the telomere length of the oldest-old at younger ages. We found a significant reduction in variance in telomere length from young adulthood to old age (p-value = 4.23*10 -6 ). The decline in telomere length variance was stronger in men (69.9%) compared to women (59.7%). The mean telomere length of the (grand)children of the oldest-old was significantly longer compared to others in the same age-range (p-value = 2.60*10 -4 ). Our study shows a reduction in the variance of telomere length over age. Further our study suggests that those with long telomere length survive longest.