@article {8478, title = {Non-esterified fatty acids and telomere length in older adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Metabol Open}, volume = {8}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Dec}, pages = {100058}, 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; ~=~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; ~=~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.

}, issn = {2589-9368}, doi = {10.1016/j.metop.2020.100058}, author = {Ahiawodzi, Peter and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Ix, Joachim H and Kizer, Jorge R and Mukamal, Kenneth J} }