Non-esterified fatty acids and telomere length in older adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study

Peter Ahiawodzi; Annette L Fitzpatrick; Luc Djousse; Joachim H Ix; Jorge R Kizer; Kenneth J Mukamal

doi:10.1016/j.metop.2020.100058

Non-esterified fatty acids and telomere length in older adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study

Metabol Open. 2020 Sep 7:8:100058. doi: 10.1016/j.metop.2020.100058. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Authors

Peter Ahiawodzi¹, Annette L Fitzpatrick², Luc Djousse³, Joachim H Ix⁴, Jorge R Kizer⁵, Kenneth J Mukamal⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, Campbell University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Buies Creek, NC, USA.
² Departments of Family Medicine, Epidemiology, and Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
³ Division of Aging, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Divisions of Nephrology and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
⁵ Cardiology Section, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System, And Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁶ Division of General Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

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.

Keywords: Aging; Glucose metabolism; Inflammation; Oxidative stress; Telomeres.

Grants and funding

U01 HL130114/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States