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Updated: Mar 18, 2026
Measuring Single-Cell Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number and Heteroplasmy Using Digital Droplet Polymerase Chain Reaction
Published on: July 12, 2022
Leukocyte mitochondrial DNA copy number, anthropometric indices, and weight change in US women
Shasha Meng1, Shaowei Wu2, Liming Liang1
1Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Objectives:
To examine the association between leukocyte mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtCN) and different anthropometric indices as well as weight changes; and to compare mtCN and telomere length with respect to their associations with BMI and age.
Design:
Population based cohort study.
Setting:
Nurses' Health Study, an ongoing prospective cohort study of 121,700 nurses enrolled in 1976; in 1989-1990 a subset of 32,826 women provided blood samples.
Participants:
1,700 disease-free US women from case-control studies nested within the Nurses' Health Study with mtCN and telomere length measured who also have anthropometric measurements.
Main Outcome Measure:
Relative mtCN and telomere lengths in peripheral blood leukocytes measured by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction and various anthropometric measurements data from initial questionnaire.
Results:
Leukocyte mtCN was inversely associated with current weight (LS means Q1-Q4: 0.07, 0.04, 0.03, -0.17; P trend =0.002), waist size (LS means Q1-Q4: 0.06, 0.05, -0.04, -0.06; P trend = 0.04), BMI (LS means normal light, normal heavy, overweight, pre-obese, obese: 0.11, -0.01, -0.04, 0.04, -0.25; P trend<0.0001), and waist-hip ratio (WHR) (LS means Q1-Q4: 0.06, 0.08, -0.04, -0.06; P trend = 0.03). A one-unit decrease in mtCN z score was equivalent to approximately 3.5 pounds of weight gain for an adult of 5'10''. In addition, weight gain was bi-directionally and inversely associated with mtCN. Moreover, mtCN was strongly positively correlated with telomere length (LS means Q1-Q4: -0.02, 0.09, 0.11, 0.33; P trend <0.0001). MtCN was inversely associated with BMI even after adjusting for telomere length (P trend =0.003), while telomere length was not associated with BMI. On the other hand, telomere length was inversely associated with age after adjusting for mtCN (P trend =0.04), while mtCN was not associated with age.
Conclusions:
Our results provide compelling evidence for a potential bi-directional temporal relationship between mitochondrial-mediated oxidative stress-defense mechanisms and weight change.
