Heart decline was not linked to shorter telomeres in rats
Relative telomere length in white blood cells remained unchanged: 1.000 at 9 months, 0.939 at 16 months and 1.120 at 24 months.
Limit: Relative telomere length was measured, absolute telomere length was not
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Researchers studied 51 Sprague-Dawley rats in a cross-sectional animal study, examining separate groups at 3, 9, 16 or 24 months. They assessed heart function with ultrasound and measured telomeres, protective stretches of DNA at chromosome ends, in circulating white blood cells and heart tissue.
Compared with 9-month-old rats, rats aged 16 or 24 months had thicker heart walls and impaired heart filling between beats. Their heart tissue also had higher activity of a gene involved in inflammation and another involved in tissue scarring. Telomere length in both blood cells and heart tissue remained unchanged across age groups. Neither measure was associated with heart dysfunction. Blood cell telomere length also did not correlate with heart tissue telomere length.
Why it matters
The authors suggested a gap in how well laboratory rats model the link between telomere shortening and cardiovascular disease seen in humans.
Caveats
The study compared different rats at different ages rather than following changes within the same animals. Its findings concern laboratory rats, not people.
From the paper
- Animals
A total of 13 rats had high Il6, while 18 rats had high Ctgf.
- Limitation
Only male rats were included, limiting the research's generalizability to both sexes.
Quoted word for word from the full text on frontiersin.org.
The paper
Age-related cardiac dysfunction is not associated with shorter telomere length in laboratory rats
Oslo University Hospital
Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, Oct 13, 2026, Open access
