TY - JOUR T1 - Smoking, telomere length and lung function decline: a longitudinal population-based study JF - Thorax JO - Thorax SP - 283 LP - 285 DO - 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2017-210294 VL - 73 IS - 3 AU - Pascal Andujar AU - Dominique Courbon AU - Emilie Bizard AU - Elisabeth Marcos AU - Serge Adnot AU - Laurent Boyer AU - Pascal Demoly AU - Debbie Jarvis AU - Catherine Neukirch AU - Isabelle Pin AU - Gabriel Thabut AU - Jorge Boczkowski AU - Bénédicte Leynaert Y1 - 2018/03/01 UR - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/73/3/283.abstract N2 - Telomere shortening is associated with COPD and impaired lung function in cross-sectional studies, but there is no longitudinal study. We used data from 448 participants recruited as part of the French follow-up of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. We found no relationship between telomere length at baseline and FEV1 decline after 11 years of follow-up. However, heavy smoking was associated with an accelerated FEV1 decline in individuals with short telomeres, but not in subjects with longer telomeres (p for interaction p=0.08). Our findings suggest that short telomere length in peripheral leucocytes might be a marker for increased susceptibility to the effect of smoking. ER -