Sex differences in leucocyte telomere length in a free-living mammal.
Sex differences in leucocyte telomere length in a free-living mammal.
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DOI：
10.1111/mec.13992
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发表时间：
2017-06
影响因子：
4.9
通讯作者：
Nussey DH
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Watson RL;Bird EJ;Underwood S;Wilbourn RV;Fairlie J;Watt K;Salvo-Chirnside E;Pilkington JG;Pemberton JM;McNeilly TN;Froy H;Nussey DH
越来越多的证据表明，平均端粒长度反映了先前的压力，并预测了脊椎动物物种的后续存活。在人类中，成年后男性的白细胞端粒长度(LTL)始终短于女性，尽管这种性别差异的原因及其与其他哺乳动物的共性尚不清楚。在这里，我们在自由生活的Soay绵羊的横截面样本中测量了LTL，发现成年后期(3岁)男性的端粒比女性的短，但在生命早期却没有。这一观察与生长或寄生虫负担的性别差异无关，但我们确实发现了LTL减少与男性早期角生长增加相关的证据。LTL的变化与不同类型的白细胞比例的变化无关，而不同的白细胞类型在端粒长度上是不同的。我们的结果首次提供了野生哺乳动物LTL性别差异的证据，但现在需要进行纵向研究来确定端粒损失率或选择性消失是否是这些观察到的差异的原因。另见丹策和加勒特的《透视》
Mounting evidence suggests that average telomere length reflects previous stress and predicts subsequent survival across vertebrate species. In humans, leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is consistently shorter during adulthood in males than in females, although the causes of this sex difference and its generality to other mammals remain unknown. Here, we measured LTL in a cross‐sectional sample of free‐living Soay sheep and found shorter telomeres in males than in females in later adulthood (>3 years of age), but not in early life. This observation was not related to sex differences in growth or parasite burden, but we did find evidence for reduced LTL associated with increased horn growth in early life in males. Variation in LTL was independent of variation in the proportions of different leucocyte cell types, which are known to differ in telomere length. Our results provide the first evidence of sex differences in LTL from a wild mammal, but longitudinal studies are now required to determine whether telomere attrition rates or selective disappearance are responsible for these observed differences. see also the Perspective by Dantzer and Garratt