LONDON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- A London study of 1,100 people ages 30 to 79, mostly female twins, found osteoarthritis can age people by 11 years.
Study leader Tim Spector of the Twin Research and Epidemiology Unit at King's College London said it was the first time osteoarthritis had been found to cause premature aging.
X-rays were taken of both hands of all participants to check for signs of osteoarthritis and a blood sample was taken to assess "biological aging" in white cell DNA. Biological aging is likely to be reflected by the gradual shortening of telomeres, the length of DNA that caps the tips of chromosomes. A host of factors make them shorten over time, including insufficient repair of the damage caused by oxygen free radicals, or oxidative stress.
Among the 160 people with hand osteoarthritis, the telomere length was significantly shorter than among those without the disease, even after taking account of influential factors, such as obesity, age, sex and smoking.
All those with hand osteoarthritis were over age 50, and the amount of telomere shortening was equivalent to that accrued over 11 years in healthy people, according to the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
