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Title: Obesity is associated with shorter telomeres in 8 year-old children.

Authors: Clemente, Diana B P; Maitre, Lea; Bustamante, Mariona; Chatzi, Leda; Roumeliotaki, Theano; Fossati, Serena; Grazuleviciene, Regina; Gützkow, Kristine B; Lepeule, Johanna; Martens, Dries S; McEachan, Rosie R C; Meltzer, Helle M; Petraviciene, Inga; Slama, Rémy; Tamayo-Uria, Ibon; Urquiza, Jose; Vafeiadi, Marina; Wright, John; Nawrot, Tim S; Vrijheid, Martine

Published In Sci Rep, (2019 12 10)

Abstract: Telomere length is considered a biomarker of biological aging. Shorter telomeres and obesity have both been associated with age-related diseases. To evaluate the association between various indices of obesity with leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in childhood, data from 1,396 mother-child pairs of the multi-centre European birth cohort study HELIX were used. Maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and 4 adiposity markers in children at age 8 (6-11) years were assessed: BMI, fat mass, waist circumference, and skinfold thickness. Relative LTL was obtained. Associations of LTL with each adiposity marker were calculated using linear mixed models with a random cohort effect. For each 1 kg/m² increment in maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, the child's LTL was 0.23% shorter (95%CI: 0.01,0.46%). Each unit increase in child BMI z-score was associated with 1.21% (95%CI: 0.30,2.11%) shorter LTL. Inverse associations were observed between waist circumference and LTL (-0.96% per z-score unit; 95%CI: -2.06,0.16%), and skinfold thickness and LTL (-0.10% per z-score unit; 95%CI: -0.23,0.02%). In conclusion, this large multicentric study suggests that higher child adiposity indicators are associated with short telomeres in children, and that associations are stronger for child BMI than for maternal pre-pregnancy BMI.

PubMed ID: 31822763 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Adiposity; Adult; Aging/genetics*; Aging/physiology; Biomarkers; Body Mass Index; Child; Cohort Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Obesity/genetics*; Pregnancy; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Skinfold Thickness; Telomere Shortening/genetics; Telomere Shortening/physiology; Telomere/genetics*; Telomere/metabolism; Waist Circumference

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