Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2014 Mar:51:15-27.
doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2013.12.004. Epub 2013 Dec 21.

Gender and telomere length: systematic review and meta-analysis

Michael Gardner  1 , David Bann  2 , Laura Wiley  3 , Rachel Cooper  2 , Rebecca Hardy  2 , Dorothea Nitsch  4 , Carmen Martin-Ruiz  3 , Paul Shiels  5 , Avan Aihie Sayer  6 , Michelangela Barbieri  7 , Sofie Bekaert  8 , Claus Bischoff  9 , Angela Brooks-Wilson  10 , Wei Chen  11 , Cyrus Cooper  6 , Kaare Christensen  9 , Tim De Meyer  8 , Ian Deary  12 , Geoff Der  13 , Ana Diez Roux  14 , Annette Fitzpatrick  15 , Anjum Hajat  14 , Julius Halaschek-Wiener  10 , Sarah Harris  12 , Steven C Hunt  16 , Carol Jagger  3 , Hyo-Sung Jeon  17 , Robert Kaplan  18 , Masayuki Kimura  19 , Peter Lansdorp  20 , Changyong Li  21 , Toyoki Maeda  22 , Massimo Mangino  23 , Tim S Nawrot  24 , Peter Nilsson  25 , Katarina Nordfjall  26 , Giuseppe Paolisso  7 , Fu Ren  21 , Karl Riabowol  27 , Tony Robertson  13 , Goran Roos  26 , Jan A Staessen  24 , Tim Spector  23 , Nelson Tang  28 , Brad Unryn  27 , Pim van der Harst  29 , Jean Woo  30 , Chao Xing  31 , Mohammad E Yadegarfar  3 , Jae Yong Park  17 , Neal Young  32 , Diana Kuh  2 , Thomas von Zglinicki  3 , Yoav Ben-Shlomo  33 ; Halcyon study team
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Gender and telomere length: systematic review and meta-analysis

Michael Gardner et al. Exp Gerontol. 2014 Mar.

Abstract

Background: It is widely believed that females have longer telomeres than males, although results from studies have been contradictory.

Methods: We carried out a systematic review and meta-analyses to test the hypothesis that in humans, females have longer telomeres than males and that this association becomes stronger with increasing age. Searches were conducted in EMBASE and MEDLINE (by November 2009) and additional datasets were obtained from study investigators. Eligible observational studies measured telomeres for both females and males of any age, had a minimum sample size of 100 and included participants not part of a diseased group. We calculated summary estimates using random-effects meta-analyses. Heterogeneity between studies was investigated using sub-group analysis and meta-regression.

Results: Meta-analyses from 36 cohorts (36,230 participants) showed that on average females had longer telomeres than males (standardised difference in telomere length between females and males 0.090, 95% CI 0.015, 0.166; age-adjusted). There was little evidence that these associations varied by age group (p=1.00) or cell type (p=0.29). However, the size of this difference did vary by measurement methods, with only Southern blot but neither real-time PCR nor Flow-FISH showing a significant difference. This difference was not associated with random measurement error.

Conclusions: Telomere length is longer in females than males, although this difference was not universally found in studies that did not use Southern blot methods. Further research on explanations for the methodological differences is required.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Gender; Measurement methods; Systematic review and meta-analysis; Telomere length.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest disclosure

This is an original work, and it has never been published nor is under consideration for publication elsewhere. All the authors have substantially contributed to data collection and manuscript drafting and revision. Peter Lansdorp is a founding shareholder in Repeat Diagnostics, a company specializing in leukocyte telomere length measurements using flow FISH. All other authors have not declared any conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram for identification of published studies and for showing contact with authors for published and unpublished studies for inclusion in review.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Meta-analysis for the association between gender and telomere length adjusted for continuous age.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Stratified meta-analyses above and below median age for the association between gender and telomere length adjusted for continuous age.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Stratified meta-analyses by method of measurement of telomere length for the association between gender and telomere length adjusted for continuous age.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Stratified meta-analyses by cell type for the association between gender and telomere length adjusted for continuous age.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adams J, Martin-Ruiz C, Pearce MS, White M, Parker L, von Zglinicki T. No association between socio-economic status and white blood cell telomere length. Aging Cell. 2007;6:125–128. - PubMed
    1. Aubert G, Baerlocher GM, Vulto I, Poon SS, Lansdorp PM. Collapse of telomere homeostasis in hematopoietic cells caused by heterozygous mutations in telomerase genes. PLoS Genet. 2012;8 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002696. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Austad SN. Why women live longer than men: sex differences in longevity. Gend Med. 2006;3:79–82. - PubMed
    1. Aviv A. Telomeres, sex, reactive oxygen species, and human cardiovascular aging. J Mol Med. 2002;80:689–695. - PubMed
    1. Aviv A, Valdes AM, Spector TD. Human telomere biology: pitfalls of moving from the laboratory to epidemiology. Int J Epidemiol. 2006;35:1424–1429. - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding