Universidade Católica de Brasília - UCB, Graduate Program in Physical Education, Brasília, Brazil.
Universidade de Brasilia, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Laboratório de Farmacologia Molecular, BRASILIA, Brazil.
Int J Sports Med. 2017 Dec;38(14):1111-1116. doi: 10.1055/s-0043-120345. Epub 2017 Nov 3.
Emergent evidence suggests that the long-term healthy lifestyle of master athletes may attenuate aging. We compared telomere length (TL) of high-level master sprinters and non-athlete age-matched controls, and analyzed the relationships of TL with performance and body fat. Elite master sprinters (n=11; aged 50.1±9.2yrs) and healthy untrained controls (n=10; aged 45.4±10.9yrs) had blood samples collected for biochemical and biomolecular analyses. Master sprinters had longer TL, lower body fat and BMI, and a better lipid profile than age-matched controls (p<0.05). A large effect size was verified comparing TL between athletes vs. controls (Cohen's d=1.039), with a significant negative correlation between TL and performance decline per decade (r=-0.624, p<0.01) and a positive correlation of TL and actual performance level (r=0.641, p<0.01). In conclusion, TL of elite master sprinters was longer than their untrained peers, and seems to be not only a marker of health status, but also an indicator of sports longevity since both actual performance level and its decrease over years were related to TL. Further research might assess the TL of elite master endurance athletes for comparison with sprinters, and also investigate the underlying mechanisms by which the attenuation of telomere shortening occurs in master athletes.
新出现的证据表明，高水平运动员的长期健康生活方式可能会减缓衰老。我们比较了高水平短跑运动员和年龄匹配的非运动员对照组的端粒长度（TL），并分析了 TL 与运动表现和体脂的关系。精英大师短跑运动员（n=11；年龄 50.1±9.2 岁）和健康未训练的对照组（n=10；年龄 45.4±10.9 岁）采集血液样本进行生化和生物分子分析。与年龄匹配的对照组相比，大师短跑运动员的 TL 更长，体脂和 BMI 更低，血脂状况更好（p<0.05）。运动员与对照组之间的 TL 比较验证了较大的效应量（Cohen's d=1.039），TL 与每十年运动表现下降呈显著负相关（r=-0.624，p<0.01），TL 与实际运动表现水平呈正相关（r=0.641，p<0.01）。总之，精英大师短跑运动员的 TL 比未受过训练的同龄人长，并且似乎不仅是健康状况的标志物，而且是运动长寿的指标，因为实际的运动表现水平及其多年来的下降都与 TL 有关。进一步的研究可能会评估精英大师耐力运动员的 TL，以便与短跑运动员进行比较，还可能会研究大师运动员中端粒缩短减缓的潜在机制。
