Differences in Leukocyte Telomere Length between Coronary Heart Disease and Normal Population: A Multipopulation Meta-Analysis
Figure 1
Overall model linking the telomere length with inflammation and oxidative stress. Route 1: in CHD patients, inflammation and oxidative stress accelerate the formation of atheroma. In order to repair the endothelial injury caused by atheroma, hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) will accelerate the replication in order to maintain its own reserve, accompanied by the shortening of telomeres in the cells. At the same time, telomere shortening will feed back to HSC, resulting in a decrease in replication rate and a decrease in their reserve. Atheroma becomes difficult to repair and more unstable. Route 2: oxidative stress and inflammation can use oxygen free radical (such as O2−) to increase the rate of telomere shortening by directly acting on the GGG-specific sequence in the telomere.