Sammanfattning
A new interest in telomere biology was sparked by the award of a Nobel Prize in 2009. In a number of observational studies it has been documented that short telomeres are associated with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. This could be due to the association with intermediate phenotypes such as obesity, or to the influence of a less healthy lifestyle. Cross-sectional measurements of telomere length are not enough to evaluate the importance of changes in telomere biology associated with cardiovascular risk. Therefore it takes longitudinal studies to compare the telomere attrition rate over time in defined subjects at varying cardiovascular risk, so far not often reported. In some studies it was shown that some subjects might even increase their telomere length over time, maybe caused by an increased activity of telomerase. The influence of cardiovascular drugs on telomere biology and related changes should be further explored.