School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, Bristol, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2013 Jul 26;8(7):e69526. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0069526. Print 2013.
Telomeres are involved in cellular ageing and shorten with increasing age. If telomere length is a valuable biomarker of ageing, then telomere shortening should be associated with worse physical performance, an ageing trait, but evidence for such an association is lacking. The purpose of this study was to examine whether change in telomere length is associated with physical performance.
Using data from four UK adult cohorts (ages 53-80 years at baseline), we undertook cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. We analysed each study separately and then used meta-analytic methods to pool the results. Physical performance was measured using walking and chair rise speed, standing balance time and grip strength. Telomere length was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in whole blood at baseline and follow-up (time 1, time 2).
Total sample sizes in meta-analyses ranged from 1,217 to 3,707. There was little evidence that telomere length was associated with walking speed, balance or grip strength, though weak associations were seen with chair rise speed and grip strength at baseline (p = 0.02 and 0.01 respectively). Faster chair rise speed at follow-up, was associated with a smaller decline in telomere length between time 1 and time 2 (standardised coefficient per SD increase 0.061, 95% CI 0.006, 0.115, p = 0.03) but this was consistent with chance (p =0.08) after further adjustment.
Whereas shortening of leukocyte telomeres might be an important measure of cellular ageing, there is little evidence that it is a strong biomarker for physical performance.
端粒参与细胞衰老，随着年龄的增长而缩短。如果端粒长度是衰老的有价值生物标志物，那么端粒缩短应该与较差的身体表现（衰老特征）相关，但缺乏这种关联的证据。本研究的目的是检验端粒长度的变化是否与身体表现相关。
使用来自四个英国成人队列（基线时年龄为 53-80 岁）的数据，我们进行了横断面和纵向分析。我们分别分析了每个研究，然后使用荟萃分析方法汇总结果。身体表现使用步行和椅子起身速度、站立平衡时间和握力来测量。端粒长度通过定量实时聚合酶链反应（PCR）在基线和随访（时间 1、时间 2）时在全血中测量。
荟萃分析中的总样本量范围为 1217 至 3707。几乎没有证据表明端粒长度与步行速度、平衡或握力相关，尽管在基线时与椅子起身速度和握力存在微弱关联（分别为 p=0.02 和 0.01）。随访时椅子起身速度较快，与时间 1 和时间 2 之间端粒长度下降较小相关（每增加一个标准差的标准系数为 0.061，95%CI 为 0.006-0.115，p=0.03），但进一步调整后这与偶然性一致（p=0.08）。
尽管白细胞端粒缩短可能是细胞衰老的重要衡量标准，但几乎没有证据表明它是身体表现的有力生物标志物。
