PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Ana Verónica Cardoso AU - Patrícia Caetano Mota AU - Aida Palmeiro AU - Paula Rendeiro AU - Natália Melo AU - José Miguel Pereira AU - Conceição Souto Moura AU - Oksana Sokhatska AU - António Morais TI - Assessment of telomere length in the combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema syndrome DP - 2014 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - 3219 VI - 44 IP - Suppl 58 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/3219.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/3219.full SO - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44 AB - Introduction: Telomeres shortening (TS) has been associated to some patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), but the implication of this association is still unknown. Since TS is also reported in emphysema patients, there is the idea that TS should be more prevalent and significant in the combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) syndrome, but this hypothesis has never been confirmed.Objectives: Assessment of TS in CPFE patients in comparison with IPF patients without emphysema.Material and Methods: Extraction of DNA from peripheral blood samples of patients with IPF followed in Diffuse Lung Diseases outpatient clinic. The relative length of telomeres was performed using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) with SYBR® Green and it was expressed by the ratio between the number of copies of the telomeres repeat (T) and single copy gene (S) on the samples, relatively to a reference sample (T/S ratio).Results: Of the 33 patients with IPF included, seventeen (51.5%) showed CPFE (58.8% of them with emphysema quantification >20%). TS (T/S ratio<1) was observed in 76.5 % of CPFE patients and in 50% of IPF patients without emphysema, but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.223). In addition, the proportion of TS did not differ significantly between patients with CPFE and emphysema >20% (80%) or <20% (71.4%) (p=1.00).Conclusions: Despite the lack of statistical significance, TS is more frequent in CPFE patients compared to IPF patients without emphysema, suggesting that this change is more significant in patients with this syndrome. However, studies with larger sample sizes are required to better determine the role of this genetic mechanism.