Abstract
Purpose Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is an important biomarker of aging. The oxidative balance score (OBS) is used to assess the oxidative stress-related exposures of diet and lifestyle. This study is aimed at exploring if the OBS was associated with LTL. Methods 3220 adults were included in this study from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2002. LTL was assayed from leukocyte DNA. Twenty dietary and lifestyle factors were selected to score the OBS. Survey-based multivariable linear regression was conducted to assess the association between the OBS and log-transformed LTL. Results The association between the OBS and log-transformed LTL was positive in females but not males. For females, compared with the lowest OBS category as a reference, the multivariable-adjusted beta estimate (95% confidence interval, CI) for the highest OBS category was 0.0701 (0.0205–0.1197) (p for trend < 0.01), and the multivariable-adjusted beta estimate (95% CI) of the continuous OBS was 0.0039 (0.0014–0.0065). There was also the gender difference in the correlations of the dietary OBS and the lifestyle OBS with log-transformed LTL. Conclusion There was a positive association between the OBS and LTL in females. This result suggested that diet and lifestyle might affect LTL by regulating oxidative balance.
Highlights
Telomeres are repetitive nucleoprotein regions located at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes
There were significant differences in the leukocyte telomere length (LTL) for oxidative balance score (OBS) quartiles, log-transformed LTL had no significant trend from the low OBS quartile to the high OBS quartile in males
We explored the association between the OBS and LTL within a large, random, and national sample of American adults
Summary
Telomeres are repetitive nucleoprotein regions located at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Since telomere length (TL) is progressively shorter during mitosis over time, it has been proposed to be a biomarker of cell senescence [2, 3]. As TL naturally shortens, cell senescence occurs, life expectancy decreases, and the risk of aging-related diseases increases, such as cancer [4, 5], cardiovascular disease [6], and type 2 diabetes [7]. Oxidative stress (OS) is another critical factor that accounts for shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) [8, 9]. OS refers to the predominance of prooxidants over antioxidants, which increases reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) [11], potentially leading to damage to lipids, proteins, or DNA. There is mounting evidence of high intakes of certain nutrients, such as vitamin C [12], vitamin D [13, 14], vitamin E [15], calcium [16, 17], magnesium [18], zinc [19], and selenium [20], protected against OS, while prooxidant factors, including smoking [21], drinking [22], and high iron
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