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Telomere Length

Measurement and Application as a Biological Indicator – Links with Anthropometry in Lifestyle Intervention

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Biomarkers in Nutrition

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Abstract

Abnormal telomere shortening underlies patients’ risk of developing age-related degenerative diseases, including metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, and cancers. The measurement of telomere length (TL) and the detection of excessively short telomeres emerge as an important new tool in biomedical research and clinical practice. The first section reviews the main methods for measuring telomere length and compares the technologies, pointing out their advantages and limitations. The second section provides information on the role of TL as a biomarker of response in lifestyle intervention aimed to reduce cardiometabolic risk in adult and pediatric populations. There is evidence that substantial weight loss is able to lower chronic inflammation and adipose tissue oxidative stress which can lead to promote TL conservation and DNA repair, thus reducing telomere attrition. Inconsistent results concerning the benefit of lifestyle intervention on TL suggest the need for more studies – probably devoted to the measurement of excessively short telomeres – before its clinical application in routine use as biomarker.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body mass index

BMI-SDS:

Body mass index standard deviation score

bp:

Base pairs

MD:

Mediterranean diet

MET:

Metabolic equivalent

MMqPCR:

Monochrome multiplex qPCR

PA:

Physical activity

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

PPARG2:

Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor Gamma 2

Q-FISH:

Quantitative Fluorescence in situ Hybridization

qPCR:

Quantitative PCR

STAR:

Single telomere absolute-length rapid

STELA:

Single telomere length analysis

TL:

Telomere length

TRF:

Terminal restriction fragment

T/S ratio:

Telomere/Single copy gene ratio

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Nutrition Research and Department of Nutrition, Food Science and Physiology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Navarra and IdiSNA, Pamplona, Spain

    A. Marti del Moral

  2. Navarra Institute for Health Research (IdiSNA), Pamplona, Spain

    A. Marti del Moral

  3. CIBER Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn), Carlos III Health Institute, Madrid, Spain

    A. Marti del Moral

  4. Department of Biochemistry and Genetics, School of Science, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    G. Zalba Goñi

Authors
  1. A. Marti del Moral
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  2. G. Zalba Goñi
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Correspondence to A. Marti del Moral .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK

    Vinood B. Patel

  2. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Life Course and Population Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK

    Victor R. Preedy

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Marti del Moral, A., Zalba Goñi, G. (2022). Telomere Length. In: Patel, V.B., Preedy, V.R. (eds) Biomarkers in Nutrition . Biomarkers in Disease: Methods, Discoveries and Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07389-2_31

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