Abstract
Background:Telomeres are involved in cellular ageing and shorten with increasing age. If telomere length is a valuable biomarker of ageing, then telomere shortening should be associated with worse physical performance, an ageing trait, but evidence for such an association is lacking. The purpose of this study was to examine whether change in telomere length is associated with physical performance.Methods:Using data from four UK adult cohorts (ages 53-80 years at baseline), we undertook cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. We analysed each study separately and then used meta-analytic methods to pool the results. Physical performance was measured using walking and chair rise speed, standing balance time and grip strength. Telomere length was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in whole blood at baseline and follow-up (time 1, time 2).Results:Total sample sizes in meta-analyses ranged from 1,217 to 3,707. There was little evidence that telomere length was associated with walking speed, balance or grip strength, though weak associations were seen with chair rise speed and grip strength at baseline (p = 0.02 and 0.01 respectively). Faster chair rise speed at follow-up, was associated with a smaller decline in telomere length between time 1 and time 2 (standardised coefficient per SD increase 0.061, 95% CI 0.006, 0.115, p = 0.03) but this was consistent with chance (p = 0.08) after further adjustment.Conclusions:Whereas shortening of leukocyte telomeres might be an important measure of cellular ageing, there is little evidence that it is a strong biomarker for physical performance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e69526 |
| Journal | PloS ONE |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 26 Jul 2013 |
Bibliographical note
HALCyon is funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing (RES-353-25-0001) and MG and RC were receiving support from this grant. The Caerphilly Prospective Study was undertaken by the former MRC Epidemiology Unit (South Wales) and the School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol acts as the data custodian. The Hertfordshire Ageing Study was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the UK Medical Research Council. The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 wave 1 phenotypic data collection and DNA preparation was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (project grant15/SAG09977). The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 wave 3 phenotypic data collection was funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates (project grant CZB/4/505). The LBC1921 work was undertaken by the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, part of the cross council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Initiative (Centre grant G0700704/84698). Funding from the BBSRC, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) is gratefully acknowledged. The NSHD is funded by the UK Medical Research Council and supports DK, RH and RC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.