title: Weight loss associated with bariatric surgery does not restore short telomere length of severe obese patients after 1 year.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Telomere shortening is physiologically associated with ageing but it may be influenced by oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, linked to obesity. Thus, obesity might represent an additional cause of telomere attrition. We aim to study relative telomere length (RTL) in obese subjects with and without metabolic syndrome and to assess the effect of weight loss induced by bariatric surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated RTL in 107 obese subjects (62 with metabolic syndrome and 45 without metabolic syndrome), compared to 130 age-matched non-obese subjects. We also measured RTL in a subgroup of 93 obese patients prior to and 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  RTL of obese subjects was significantly shorter (p<0.0001) than non-obese subjects but without differences between patients with and without metabolic syndrome (p=0.19). RTL was significantly shorter than baseline at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after bariatric surgery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results confirm that obese subjects have shorter telomeres compared to non-obese subjects, but RTL is not influenced by the presence of metabolic syndrome. RTL shows an additional attrition during the immediate post-operative period, probably due to a catabolic state.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical, Surgical and Neurological Sciences, University of Siena, Viale Mario Bracci 16, 53100, Siena, Italy, catefo@libero.it.
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Formichi
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cantara
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ciuoli
authors.forename: Ornella
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Neri
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chiofalo
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Selmi
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tirone
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Colasanto
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Di Cosmo
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vuolo
authors.forename: Furio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pacini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D050110:Bariatric Surgery; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000235:genetics / Q000601:surgery*; D016615:Telomere / Q000502:physiology*; D059506:Telomere Shortening / Q000502:physiology*; D015431:Weight Loss