Abstract

Telomere length is considered a biomarker of biological aging. Shorter telomeres and obesity have both been associated with age-related diseases. To evaluate the association between various indices of obesity with leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in childhood, data from 1,396 mother-child pairs of the multi-centre European birth cohort study HELIX were used. Maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and 4 adiposity markers in children at age 8 (6–11) years were assessed: BMI, fat mass, waist circumference, and skinfold thickness. Relative LTL was obtained. Associations of LTL with each adiposity marker were calculated using linear mixed models with a random cohort effect. For each 1 kg/m² increment in maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, the child’s LTL was 0.23% shorter (95%CI: 0.01,0.46%). Each unit increase in child BMI z-score was associated with 1.21% (95%CI: 0.30,2.11%) shorter LTL. Inverse associations were observed between waist circumference and LTL (−0.96% per z-score unit; 95%CI: −2.06,0.16%), and skinfold thickness and LTL (−0.10% per z-score unit; 95%CI: −0.23,0.02%). In conclusion, this large multicentric study suggests that higher child adiposity indicators are associated with short telomeres in children, and that associations are stronger for child BMI than for maternal pre-pregnancy BMI.

Details

Title
Obesity is associated with shorter telomeres in 8 year-old children
Author
Clemente, Diana B P 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Maitre, Lea 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bustamante, Mariona 3 ; Chatzi, Leda 4 ; Roumeliotaki, Theano 5 ; Fossati, Serena 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Grazuleviciene, Regina 6 ; Gützkow, Kristine B 7 ; Lepeule, Johanna 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Martens, Dries S 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; McEachan, Rosie R C 10 ; Meltzer, Helle M 7 ; Petraviciene, Inga 6 ; Slama, Rémy 8 ; Tamayo-Uria, Ibon 11 ; Urquiza, Jose 2 ; Vafeiadi, Marina 5 ; Wright, John 10 ; Nawrot, Tim S 12 ; Vrijheid, Martine 2 

1  ISGlobal, Institute for Global Health Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Center for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain 
2  ISGlobal, Institute for Global Health Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain 
3  ISGlobal, Institute for Global Health Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain; Bioinformatics and Genomics Program, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona, Spain 
4  Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, USA; Department of Social Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece 
5  Department of Social Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece 
6  Department of Environmental Science, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania 
7  Norwegian Institute of Public Health, P.O. Box 4404, Nydalen, Oslo, Norway 
8  Inserm and University Grenoble-Alpes, U1209, IAB, Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Reproduction and Respiratory Health, Saint-Martin-d’Hères, France 
9  Center for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium 
10  Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Bradford, Bradford, UK 
11  ISGlobal, Institute for Global Health Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Center for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Statistics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 
12  Center for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Department of Public Health & Primary Care, Unit Environment & Health, Leuven University, Leuven, Belgium 
Pages
1-8
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Dec 2019
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55283-8
ProQuest document ID
2323434484
Copyright
© 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.