Telomere Length in Healthy Controls Clinical Trial
Official title:
Telomere Shortening as a Prognostic Marker in Early Inflammatory Arthritis: Establishing the Stability of Telomeres in Normal Individuals
The Investigators have established a cohort of patients with recent-onset inflammatory arthritis called Early Undifferentiated PolyArthritis (EUPA). This cohort was established to define novel biomarkers of poor outcomes. We want to study telomere length and T-cell Receptor Excision Circles (TREC) numbers in peripheral blood as new biomarkers. This cohort of normal controls was established to be able to define the stability over short periods of time of telomere length and TREC numbers in normal individuals, in order to compare with arthritis patients.
It is difficult to establish early on the prognosis of patients with recent-onset polyarthritis. We want to know if we can use the length of telomeres in peripheral blood cells at baseline as a novel prognostic marker. In order to be able to interpret our observations in arthritis patients over time, we need to compare these results with those observed in normal human controls adjusted for gender and for age groups. These patients are first screened for the presence of acute or chronic severe diseases (cancer, cardiovascular, articular, et...). They then have genomic DNA extracted from peripheral blood at Baseline and at 3 months interval for a year than annually for a total duration of 5 years. A complete blood count is collected at each blood draw. At each blood draw, the appearance of acute or chronic diseases is noted. ;