Association between the development of vibration disease and a decrease in the relative length of telomeres among employees of Bashkortostan enterprises

Vibration disease (VD) is an occupational disease that develops with prolonged exposure to industrial vibrations of different frequencies. Previously, the effect of vibration disease on human aging was shown, measured on the basis of physiological indicators. Measuring telomere length is the most common indicator of a person's biological age, which is believed to reflect the difference in a person's aging rate. Telomeres are non-coding regions of heterochromatin and serve to protect the ends of chromosomes from sticking together and from gene erosion. The study aims to estimate the biological age of employees suffering from vibration disease by determining the relative length of telomeres (RLT). To conduct the study, the specialists received biomaterials from 51 people aged 35 to 60 years, who were examined at the Ufa Research Institute of Occupational Health and Human Ecology. The study participants were divided into groups depending on the diagnosis of vibration disease and the type of vibration exposure. Determination of the relative length of telomeres was carried out using the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. The researchers performed statistical analysis using the scipy.stats package in Python. The researchers found a statistically significant decrease in the relative telomere length in the group of workers with vibration disease compared with healthy workers. An analysis of the relative telomere length in workers exposed to various types of vibration revealed a statistically significant decrease in telomere length in workers exposed to general vibration compared with other groups studied. The development of vibration disease is associated with a statistically significant decrease in the average relative telomere length. This biomarker also shows differences depending on the nature of exposure: general vibration is associated with a greater decrease in the relative length of telomeres than local vibration. Limitations. The disadvantages of the work include the lack of data on working conditions. It was not possible to obtain data on the magnitude of the impact of vibration, which did not allow quantifying its effect on the development of vibration disease and on the relative length of telomeres. Also, the work does not take into account the accompanying harmful production factors, since their heterogeneity and small sample size for each factor did not allow for statistical analysis. The disadvantages include the lack of additional tests, such as the level of cortisol and other hormones associated with the stress response. It is also worth noting the small size of the sample under study, which did not allow a regression analysis to compare the effects of gender, age, and other characteristics on relative telomere length and vibration disease.