Acute coronary syndrome: Role of the telomere dynamic

Abstract

Telomeres, or historically named "terminal genes" are first discovered by Muller working on fruit fly in 1930s. Since then, the great progress was made in understanding the consequences of telomere erosion on the human health and disease states, as age related vascular diseases. The overlapping links between telomere dynamics in endothelial cells, endothelial progenitor cells and other cells laid in the vessel wall made telomere regulation as a hub node in keeping vascular health. Shortest telomeres paralleled with the advent of coronary artery diseases and its related risk factors, is well explainable by "Telomere hypothesis". But this needs further studies to determine the real state of short telomere
length in atherosclerosis: marker or risk factor? As a marker, leukocyte telomere length was used in mirroring mean telomere length of the whole organism, but there are some debates about the best cell reflecting the exact telomere length. Impact of telomere biology on vascular system in the progression and development of atherosclerosis delights its targeting as a new therapeutic option for cardiovascular diseases. This needs in depth elucidation of the underlying mechanisms of telomere erosion in vascular beds.