Abstract | BACKGROUND: Telomeres shorten as organisms age, placing limits on cell proliferation and serving as a marker of biological aging. Non- esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) are a key mediator of age-related metabolic abnormalities. We aimed to determine if NEFAs are associated with telomere length in community-living older adults. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We cross-sectionally studied 1648 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) who underwent concomitant telomere length measurement from a sample of 4715 participants who underwent measurement of circulating total fasting NEFAs in stored specimens from their 1992-3 clinic visit. We used linear regression and inverse probability weighting to model telomere length as a function of NEFAs with adjustment for age, gender, race, clinic, BMI, marital status, smoking status, alcohol intake, diabetes status, years of education, hypertension status, prevalent cardiovascular disease, C-reactive protein, total adiponectin, albumin, fetuin-A, fasting insulin, eGFR, total cholesterol, HDL- cholesterol, triglycerides, and general health status. RESULTS: Higher NEFAs were significantly associated with shorter telomere length, after adjusting for age, gender, race, and clinic site (β = -0.034; SE = 0.015; P = 0.02). Estimates remained similar in fully adjusted models where each SD of NEFA increment was associated with 0.042 kilobase (kb) pairs shorter telomere length (standard error = 0.016; P = 0.007); for comparison the coefficient for a single year of age in the same model was -0.017. These results were similar in strata of sex, and waist circumference although they tended to be strongest among participants in the youngest tertile of age (β = -0.079; SE = 0.029; P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In this population-based cohort of community-living elders, we observed a significant inverse association between NEFAs and telomere length. If confirmed, NEFAs may represent a promising target for interventions to slow biological aging.
|
Authors | Peter Ahiawodzi, Annette L Fitzpatrick, Luc Djousse, Joachim H Ix, Jorge R Kizer, Kenneth J Mukamal |
Journal | Metabolism open
(Metabol Open)
Vol. 8
Pg. 100058
(Dec 2020)
ISSN: 2589-9368 [Electronic] England |
PMID | 32995737
(Publication Type: Journal Article)
|
Copyright | © 2020 The Authors. |