title: Shorter telomeres are associated with obesity and weight gain in the elderly.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Obesity and shorter telomeres are commonly associated with elevated risk for age-related diseases and mortality. Whether telomere length (TL) may be associated with obesity or variations in adiposity is not well established. Therefore, we set out to test the hypothesis that TL may be a risk factor for increased adiposity using data from a large population-based cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Levels of adiposity were assessed in six ways (obesity status, body mass index (BMI), the percentage of body fat or % body fat, leptin, visceral and subcutaneous fat mass) in 2721 elderly subjects (42% black and 58% white). Associations between TL measured in leukocytes at baseline and adiposity traits measured at baseline, and three of these traits after 7 years of follow-up were tested using regression models adjusting for important covariates. Additionally, we look at weight changes and relative changes in BMI and % body fat between baseline and follow-up.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At baseline, TL was negatively associated with % body fat (ß=-0.35±0.09, P=0.001) and subcutaneous fat (ß=-2.66±1.07, P=0.01), and positively associated with leptin after adjusting for % body fat (ß=0.32±0.14, P=0.001), but not with obesity, BMI or visceral fat. Prospective analyses showed that longer TL was associated with positive percent change between baseline and 7-year follow-up for both BMI (ß=0.48±0.20, P=0.01) and % body fat (ß=0.42±0.23, P=0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study suggests that shorter TL may be a risk factor for increased adiposity. Coupling with previous reports on their reversed roles, the relationship between adiposity and TL may be complicated and may warrant more prospective studies.
authors: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0794, USA.
authors: O T
authors: OT
authors: Njajou
authors: R M
authors: RM
authors: Cawthon
authors: E H
authors: EH
authors: Blackburn
authors: T B
authors: TB
authors: Harris
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Li
authors: J L
authors: JL
authors: Sanders
authors: A B
authors: AB
authors: Newman
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Nalls
authors: S R
authors: SR
authors: Cummings
authors: W-C
authors: WC
authors: Hsueh
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000235:genetics*