Leukocyte telomere length is preserved with aging in endurance exercise-trained adults and related to maximal aerobic capacity

Abstract

Telomere length (TL), a measure of replicative senescence, decreases with aging, but the factors involved are incompletely understood. To determine if age-associated reductions in TL are related to habitual endurance exercise and maximal aerobic exercise capacity (maximal oxygen consumption, VO 2 max), we studied groups of young (18 -32 years; n = 15, 7m) and older (55 -72 years; n = 15, 9m) sedentary and young (n = 10, 7m) and older endurance exercise-trained (n = 17, 11m) healthy adults. Leukocyte TL (LTL) was shorter in the older (7059 ± 141 bp) vs. young (8407 ± 218) sedentary adults (P < 0.01). LTL of the older endurance-trained adults (7992 ± 169 bp) was 900 bp greater than their sedentary peers (P < 0.01) and was not significantly different (P=0.12) from young exercise-trained adults (8579 ± 413). LTL was positively related to VO 2 max due to a significant association in older adults (r = 0.44, P < 0.01). Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that VO 2 max independently explained ~60% of the variance in LTL. Our results indicate that LTL is preserved in healthy older adults who perform vigorous aerobic exercise and is positively related to maximal aerobic exercise capacity. This may represent a novel molecular mechanism underlying the "anti-aging" effects of maintaining high aerobic fitness.Telomere length (TL) is a measure of replicative senescence (Aubert & Lansdorp, 2008) and a proposed marker of biological aging (Bekaert et al., 2007). TL decreases progressively with aging (Gilley et al., 2008) and is associated with numerous pathologies (Brouilette et al., 2007;Demissie et al., 2006;Fitzpatrick et al., 2007) and all-cause mortality (Cawthon et al., 2003;Farzaneh-Far et al., 2008). Moreover, cellular senescence induced by telomere shortening is a potential mechanism underlying reductions in physiological function with aging (Muller, 2009;Fuster & Andrés, 2006). At any age, TL is determined by the combination of the TL at birth and the rate of age-related decline (Aubert & Lansdorp, 2008). Despite its biological and biomedical importance, the factors that influence the age-associated decrease in TL are incompletely understood, particularly with regard to factors that may act to preserve TL. In this context, habitual aerobic exercise and high aerobic exercise capacity generally are associated with better maintenance of cellular function with aging compared with a sedentary lifestyle. However, associations between TL and habitual physical activity are inconsistent (Cherkas et al., 2008;Woo et al., 2008;Ludlow et al., 2008, Shin et al., 2008 and there is no information on TL and objective measures of aerobic capacity. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production proces...

Human aging and CD31+T-cell number, migration, apoptotic susceptibility, and telomere length

“…In the current study, we observed a progressive decline in telomere length with age in CD31 ϩ T cells. The magnitude of the age-related reduction in telomere length (ϳ40 bp/yr) in the present study is consistent with that previously reported in other cell lines (25,26). Concurrent with the reduction in telomere length, telomerase activity was ϳ40% lower in CD31 ϩ T cells from middle-aged and older compared with young men.…”

Resistance Training and Redox Homeostasis: Correlation with Age-Associated Genomic Changes

“…It has been suggested that numerous beneficial effects of exercise may be related to LTL [14,37,18] and to the modulation of the epigenome, which thereby may induce the adaptation of several stress-proteins/molecules response (i.e. antioxidants, heat shock proteins) already observed in different studies [16,47,6,7,9].…”

“…However, it must be considered that TL in different cell types may better reflect specific diseases, tissue-specific aging, or cell-specific adaptations [67]. To Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/redox date, there are many evidences about the association between habitual PA and longer leukocyte telomere length (LTL) [14,17,37,40,71,18,57,39], but most of them derive from studies where aerobic endurance-exercise training was used as intervention [14,17,37,18,57]. Moreover, they have shown conflicting results, with telomeres that can take three different trajectories (expected shortening, maintenance, and lengthening).…”

Assessing the scholarly impact of health psychology: A citation analysis of articles published from 1993 to 2003.

“…There are several psychological and behavioral factors associated with telomere length, including psychological distress [11], personality characteristics [12], poor diet [13], cigarette smoking [14,15], and leading a sedentary lifestyle [16,17]. Interestingly, sleep, a modifiable health behavior that often worsens with age [18] and is repeatedly predictive of rates of chronic disease [19][20][21], has yet to be evaluated.…”