Relative leukocyte telomere length in patients with chronic alcohol addiction depending on clinical and anamnestic characteristics

The studies conducted on human cell lines demonstrated that even moderate alcohol consumption caused the shortening of telomeres – structures that play a key role in of cellular aging. Nevertheless, published data on the effect of chronic alcohol intake on the changes in the relative leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in humans remain ambiguous. Such ambiguity may be attributed to the differences in the clinical symptoms of individuals with alcohol dependence. In this regard, the present study aimed to test for the hypothesis, which suggests the association of shorter telomeres with manifesting chronic alcoholism and to identify clinical and anamnestic characteristics associated with individual variance in relative telomere length in subjects with alcohol dependence. LTL assessment has been carried out via real-time PCR in patients diagnosed with alcohol dependence syndrome (ICD-10) (N = 272) and in control group (N = 254). Linear regression analysis demonstrated statistically significant effect of age in the total sample (βstand = -0.153, Р = 0.009) and in men (βstand = -0.143, Р = 0.026) on variance in LTL. Moreover, age-dependent telomeres shortening was characteristic only for patients’ group (βstand = -0.217, Р = 0.017). The inclusion of clinical and anamnestic characteristics in the model resulted in a significant negative effect of age at onset of withdrawal syndrome on LTL (βstand = -0.343, Р=0.001). The findings obtained are congruent with the data on the toxic effect of acetaldehyde and increased allostatic load accompanied by prolonged alcohol consumption, and confirm the presence of a compensatory effect in the cells, which is associated with regulated expression of genes responsible for maintaining telomere length.

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