title: Chronic exercise modifies age-related telomere dynamics in a tissue-specific fashion.
abstract: We evaluated the impact of long-term exercise on telomere dynamics in wild-derived short telomere mice (CAST/Ei) over 1 year. We observed significant telomere shortening in liver and cardiac tissues in sedentary 1-year-old mice compared with young (8 weeks) baseline mice that were attenuated in exercised 1-year-old animals. In contrast, skeletal muscle exhibited significant telomere shortening in exercise mice compared with sedentary and young mice. Telomerase enzyme activity was increased in skeletal muscle of exercise compared with sedentary animals but was similar in cardiac and liver tissues. We observed significant age-related decreases in expression of telomere-related genes that were attenuated by exercise in cardiac and skeletal muscle but not liver. Protein content of TRF1 was significantly increased in plantaris muscle with age. In summary, long-term exercise altered telomere dynamics, slowing age-related decreases in telomere length in cardiac and liver tissue but contributing to shortening in exercised skeletal muscle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Ludlow
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Witkowski
authors.forename: Mallory R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Laila C J
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Guth
authors.forename: Espen E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Spangenburg
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Roth
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004260:DNA Repair; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000378:metabolism; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism; D005082:Physical Exertion / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism; D059506:Telomere Shortening / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D035321:Telomeric Repeat Binding Protein 1 / Q000378:metabolism; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D035321:Telomeric Repeat Binding Protein 1; D019098:Telomerase