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Associations between Serum Sex Hormone Concentrations and Telomere Length among U.S. Adults, 1999–2002

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The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Background and Objectives

Sex hormone concentrations and telomere length are age related responses of human body, while whether there is a direct relation between sex hormone and telomere length is uncertain. Therefore, we used the data of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to quantify their direct association.

Research Design and Methods

A total of 710 women aged 35–60 years and 539 men aged 20–85 years were included from two cycles of the NHANES (1999–2002). Telomere length relative to standard reference DNA (T/S ratio) was measured using quantitative polymerase chain reaction method. Seven hormones in serum (5 in men and 2 in women) were assayed. Logistic regressions were used to calculate the odds ratios to evaluate the telomere length-sex hormones association.

Results

Men with vigorous physical activity (71.1%) and without history of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and lipid-lowering drugs using tended to have a longer telomere length (all P-values < 0.05); while women with longer sedentary time, smaller pregnant or live birth, and with older ages of firth/last birth were likely with longer telomere length (all P-values < 0.05). After adjusted for potential confounders, only anti-Mullerian hormone was positively and stably associated with short leukocytes telomere length in men (OR: 1.098; 95% CI: 1.034, 1.165). We did not detect any significant association of short telomere length with sex hormones in men and women.

Discussion and Implications

Serum anti-Mullerian hormone in men was positively and stably associated with telomere length. More large-scaled and well-designed prospective studies are warranted to reconfirm our conclusions.

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Acknowledgements

The project described was supported by NNSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.: 81703238) (Dr. Zhang and Dan-Tong Gu).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    D. Gu

  2. Department of Clinical Research, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center; State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, China

    J. Li

  3. School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    J. Little

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Xin Hua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    H. Li

  5. Clinical Research Unit, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 1665 Kongjiang Road, Kejiao Building 233B, Shanghai, China, 200092

    Xi Zhang

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  1. D. Gu
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Correspondence to Xi Zhang.

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Conflict of interest: The authors have no conflict of interest to report

Ethical standard: The data was from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and all protocols were approved by the National Center for Health Statistics Research ethics review board. All participants have singed informed consent.

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12603_2019_1291_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Supplemental table 1. Sensitivity analyses of relation between sex hormone concentrations and telomere length in women, OR 95% CI

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Gu, D., Li, J., Little, J. et al. Associations between Serum Sex Hormone Concentrations and Telomere Length among U.S. Adults, 1999–2002. J Nutr Health Aging 24, 48–54 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-019-1291-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-019-1291-x

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