INFLUENCE OF METABOLIC SYNDROME AND ITS COMPONENTS ON TELOMERE LENGTH

Abstract

Objective: to assess the influence of different metabolic markers, metabolic syndrome (MS) and its components on telomere length Design and method: we examined 45 patients (44.4% men) age median was 26[21;39] years. All patients underwent waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), neck circumference (NC) measurement, LAP (Lipid Accumulation Product), VAI (Visceral Adiposity Index), BFP (Body Fat Percentage), BAI (Body Adiposity Index) indices evaluation, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides (TC), blood glucose testing. Telomere length was assessed by PCR and fluorimetry. Statistical processing of the data was done with STATISTICA 10 software. Results: the patients were divided into two groups: with MS (n=10; 22.2%) and without MS (n=35; 77.8%). Groups had no difference by gender, age and smoking status (p>0.05). MS group had elevated levels of BMI, WC, HC, NC and percentage of obesity in comparison with non-MS group (p<0.05). Patients with MS more frequently suffered from hypertension (50%), dyslipidemia (90%), hyperglycemia (20%) and had higher systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) than non-MS group (p<0.05). In MS group LAP (138.7[90.6;156]), BFP (33.3[28.7;43.9]) and BAI (33.6[29.7;38.5]) indices were significantly higher than in control group (LAP (16.17[9.7;38.2]), BFP (25.8[17.6;29.2]) and BAI (24.8[21.5;27.4])) (p<0.001). We revealed correlation relationships of telomere length with WC (r=-0.3; p<0.05), HC (r=-0.35; p<0.05), NC (r=-0.53; p<0.05); TC (r=-0.64; p<0.05), LDL (r=-0.52; p<0.05), HDL (r=0.59; p<0.05), TG (r=-0.46; p<0.05), blood glucose (r=-0.33; p<0.05), integral metabolic indices: LAP(r=-0.4; p<0.05), BAI(r=-0.32; p<0.05) and presence of MS (r=-0.36; p<0.05), dyslipidemia (r=-0.76; p<0.05) and DBP level (r=-0.31; p<0.05). We performed multivariate linear regression analysis to assess influence of different MS components that demonstrated correlation with telomere length: TC (b = -0.4, Std. Err of b = -0.1, p= 0.003), blood glucose (b = -0.26, Std. Err of b = 0.12, p= 0.004) and HDL (b = 0.69, Std. Err of b = 0.26, p= 0.001). Conclusions: telomere length is significantly shorter in patients with MS than in patients of comparable age without MS. Decrease in HDL and increase in TC and blood glucose significantly influences on telomere length.