Maria Angela Guzzardi, Patricia Iozzo, Minna Salonen, Eero Kajantie, Johan G Eriksson
a Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council (CNR) , Pisa , Italy.
b National Institute for Health and Welfare , Department of Chronic Disease Prevention , Helsinki , Finland.
Ann Med. 2015;47(6):499-505. doi: 10.3109/07853890.2015.1074718. Epub 2015 Sep 4.
Leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is associated with age-related health outcomes, but only few longitudinal studies have assessed changes in LTL in an ageing population.
A total of 1,082 subjects from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study (born 1934-1944), undergoing two clinical visits ∼10 years apart, were studied. Relative LTL was measured twice by quantitative real-time PCR. Simple and multiple regressions were used to study associations between cardiometabolic risk factors and LTL.
Telomere shortening was observed in 93.7%, and telomere elongation in 6.3% of the study participants. Telomere shortening was more rapid among males (-39.5% ± 1.1% versus -35.5% ± 1.0%, P < 0.01). In men a decrease in weight, waist circumference, BMI, and body fat percentage were all associated with telomere shortening during the follow-up (P < 0.05) independently of age and use of medication. Furthermore, higher body fat percentage and higher HDL-cholesterol level were associated with a slower rate of shortening in LTL (P < 0.05). Lower blood pressure levels were also associated with slower rate of telomere shortening in men (P < 0.05). No similar associations were observed among women.
A decrease in adiposity was associated with telomere shortening, and higher body fat percentage and HDL-cholesterol were associated with a slower rate of shortening in telomere length in men.
白细胞端粒长度（LTL）与年龄相关的健康结果有关，但仅有少数纵向研究评估了老年人群中LTL的变化。
对来自赫尔辛基出生队列研究（出生于1934年至1944年）的1082名受试者进行了研究，这些受试者接受了两次间隔约10年的临床检查。通过定量实时PCR对相对LTL进行了两次测量。使用简单回归和多元回归研究心血管代谢危险因素与LTL之间的关联。
在93.7%的研究参与者中观察到端粒缩短，6.3%的参与者端粒延长。男性端粒缩短更快（-39.5%±1.1%对-35.5%±1.0%，P<0.01）。在男性中，随访期间体重、腰围、BMI和体脂百分比的降低均与端粒缩短有关（P<0.05），且独立于年龄和药物使用情况。此外，较高的体脂百分比和较高的高密度脂蛋白胆固醇水平与LTL缩短速度较慢有关（P<0.05）。较低的血压水平也与男性端粒缩短速度较慢有关（P<0.05）。在女性中未观察到类似关联。
肥胖程度降低与端粒缩短有关，较高的体脂百分比和高密度脂蛋白胆固醇与男性端粒长度缩短速度较慢有关。
