Abstract Introduction Telomeres are terminal sequences, TTAGGG, of linear eukaryotic chromosomes that are involved in maintaining genomic stability and regulating cellular proliferation. Telomeres shorten with every cell division, as DNA polymerase is not able to fully replicate the 3′ end of the DNA strand. Telomere length has been shown to be associated with biological ageing and pathogenesis of various cardiovascular diseases. However, the length of the telomere has not been studied in patients that present ventricular fibrillation (VF) during acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Purpouse The aim of this study is to analyze telomere length an its potential association to VF in AMI. Methods Blood samples of 95 AMI and 62 VF in AMI patients were included in the study. DNA isolation was performed and telomere length was measured in quadruplicate by quantitative PCR method, and 36B4 (S) was used as reference gene. The T/S ratio was calculated using these efficiency values: T/S ratio = efficiency−CpTel/efficiency−Cp 36B4. Data was analyzed using SPSS software version 20 (Chicago, Ilinois, USA). Mann-Whitney U-test was performed for homogeneity testing. Multivariate analysis using logistic regression analysis was performed to assess T/S ratio and age and gender as associated risk factors of FV in AMI patients. Significance was defined as p 0.05. Results Telomeres were significantly longer in patients with VF during AMI (AMI= 194,08±41,08 (n=95) vs VF in AMI=211,98±45,25 (n=63) P0.008). Multivariate analysis by binary logistic regression did not reveal significant association with age (p=0.857) nor gender (p=0.196) with FV in AMI patients. A longer telomere length is significantly associated with FV in AMI patients and may be a risk factor associated with VF (OR:1.010; p=0.024). Conclusions Patients with VF during AMI present higher length of telomeres than patients with AMI, independently of sex and age.
Nunez et al. (Sat,) studied this question.