Reduced telomere length is associated with fibrotic joint disease suggesting that impaired telomere repair contributes to joint fibrosis

• Nicholas S. Kalson ,

  Contributed equally to this work with: Nicholas S. Kalson, Tim M. Brock

  Roles Data curation, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Fibrosis Research Group, Institute of Cellular Medicine, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Department of Orthopaedics, Newcastle University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

  http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8394-3060

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• Tim M. Brock ,

  Contributed equally to this work with: Nicholas S. Kalson, Tim M. Brock

  Roles Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Fibrosis Research Group, Institute of Cellular Medicine, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Department of Orthopaedics, Newcastle University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

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• Massimo Mangino,

  Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom

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• Stella M. Fabiane,

  Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

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• Derek A. Mann,

  Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Fibrosis Research Group, Institute of Cellular Medicine, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

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• Lee A. Borthwick,

  Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Fibrosis Research Group, Institute of Cellular Medicine, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

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• David J. Deehan,

  Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Fibrosis Research Group, Institute of Cellular Medicine, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Department of Orthopaedics, Newcastle University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

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• Frances M. K. Williams

  Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  * E-mail: frances.williams@kcl.ac.uk

  Affiliation Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

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