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The mediating role of telomere length in multi-pollutant exposure associated with metabolic syndrome in adults

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Abstract

Metabolic syndrome is a chronic and complex disease characterized by environmental and genetic factors. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study assessed the relationship between exposure to a mixture of environmental chemicals and metabolic syndrome (MetS) and further examined whether telomere length (TL) moderated these relationships. A total of 1265 adults aged > 20 years participated in the study. Data on multiple pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, and metals), MetS, leukocyte telomere length (LTL), and confounders were provided in the 2001–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The correlations between multi-pollutant exposure, TL, and MetS in the males and females were separately assessed using principal component analysis (PCA), logistic and extended linear regression models, Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR), and mediation analysis. Four factors were generated in PCA that accounted for 76.2% and 77.5% of the total environmental pollutants in males and females, respectively. The highest quantiles of PC2 and PC4 were associated with the risk of TL shortening (P < 0.05). We observed that the relationship between PC2, PC4, and MetS risk was significant in the participants with median TL levels (P for trend = 0.04 for PC2, and P for trend = 0.01 for PC4). Furthermore, mediation analysis revealed that TL could explain 26.1% and 17.1% of the effects of PC2 and PC4 associated with MetS in males, respectively. The results of BKMR model revealed that these associations were mainly driven by 1-PYE (cPIP = 0.65) and Cd (cPIP = 0.29) in PC2. Meanwhile, TL could explain 17.7% of the mediation effects of PC2 associated with MetS in the females. However, the relationships between pollutants and MetS were sparse and inconsistent in the females. Our findings suggest that the effects of the risk of MetS associated with mixed exposure to multiple pollutants are mediated by TL, and this mediating effect in the males is more pronounced than that in the females.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was partially funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81803244).

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  1. Weifeng Tang and Wenqiang Zhan contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children’s Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Weifeng Tang, Wenqiang Zhan & Qian Chen

  2. School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Wenqiang Zhan

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Weifeng Tang: conceptualization, methodology, software, and writing—original draft. Wenqiang Zhan: resources, investigation, validation, and writing—review and editing. Qian Chen: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Qian Chen.

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Brief synopsis: Telomere length mediates the association between multipollutant exposure and metabolic syndrome especially in males.

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Tang, W., Zhan, W. & Chen, Q. The mediating role of telomere length in multi-pollutant exposure associated with metabolic syndrome in adults. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 82068–82082 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28017-7

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