Elizabeth CL, et al. - Given that cross-sectional and longitudinal studies describe shorter telomeres in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) vs matched non-COPD controls, but the relationship is confounded by tobacco consumption, researchers tested their hypothesis that telomere shortening would be similar between non-smoking and smoking individuals with airflow limitation and shorter than non-obstructed controls. Telomere shortening was shown to be related to airflow limitation independent of smoking status. The telomere length was not found to be significantly related to clinical or lung function parameters.