| Title: | Parental age at birth, telomere length, and autism spectrum disorders in the UK Biobank cohort |
| Journal: | Autism Research |
| Published: | 1 Oct 2024 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3258 |
Publication 13298
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Abstract
Older parental age at birth is associated with increased risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in offspring. Independently, shorter telomere length (TL) has also been shown to be associated with ASD in children. However, older paternal age at birth, with or without controlling for maternal age, has been associated with longer TL, a seemingly contradictory finding. Here, we conducted a retrospective cohort study among participants in the UK Biobank to disentangle associations between leukocyte TL and ASD status in adults, and the potential moderation by parental age on adult offspring's TL. Participants with ASD diagnosis (N = 87) with a mean age of 46.0 (SD 4.4) years were matched to participants without ASD diagnosis (N = 870) based on age, sex, ethnicity, education, household income, and assessment center. No statistically significant differences were seen in TL between participants with and without ASD when parental age at birth was not considered. However, there was a significant interaction between ASD diagnostic status and parental age on participants' TL, such that older paternal or maternal age at birth was more strongly associated with longer TL in participants with ASD. This study suggests that the shortened TL observed in children with ASD in previous research may partially depend on parental age at birth. Future studies tracking TL attrition before ASD diagnosis are warranted to depict temporal associations and the interacting effects of parental age at birth and ASD status on TL across the lifespan. Older biological age, as measured by shortened telomere length, has been observed in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In contrast, older parental age at birth has been related to both ASD risk and longer telomere length. In the present study, telomere length did not differ significantly between adults with and without ASD. However, we found that longer telomere length among adults with ASD versus adults without ASD could be more apparent in individuals with older parents. These findings suggest that parental age at birth may explain telomere length differences between individuals with and without ASD, and that the shorter telomere length previously found in children with ASD may depend on parental age at birth.</p>
15 Keywords
- Adult
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Biological Specimen Banks
- Cohort Studies
- Female
- Humans
- Male
- Maternal Age
- Middle Aged
- Parents
- Paternal Age
- Retrospective Studies
- Telomere
- UK Biobank
- United Kingdom
6 Authors
- Qiaofeng Ye
- Abner T. Apsley
- Waylon J. Hastings
- Laura Etzel
- Craig Newschaffer
- Idan Shalev
1 Application
| Application ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 102883 | Investigation of the relationship between parental age at birth, telomere length, and autism spectrum disorders in the UK biobank cohort |
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