Abstract
Telomere length is recognized as a marker of biological age, and shorter mean leukocyte telomere length is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. It is unclear whether repeated exposure to ultra-endurance aerobic exercise is beneficial or detrimental in the long-term and whether it attenuates biological aging. We quantified 67 ultra-marathon runners’ and 56 apparently healthy males’ leukocyte telomere length (T/S ratio) using real-time quantitative PCR. The ultra-marathon runners had 11% longer telomeres (T/S ratio) than controls (ultra-marathon runners: T/S ratio = 3.5±0.68, controls: T/S ratio = 3.1±0.41; β = 0.40, SE = 0.10, P = 1.4×10−4) in age-adjusted analysis. The difference remained statistically significant after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors (P = 2.2×10−4). The magnitude of this association translates into 16.2±0.26 years difference in biological age and approximately 324–648bp difference in leukocyte telomere length between ultra-marathon runners and healthy controls. Neither traditional cardiovascular risk factors nor markers of inflammation/adhesion molecules explained the difference in leukocyte telomere length between ultra-marathon runners and controls. Taken together these data suggest that regular engagement in ultra-endurance aerobic exercise attenuates cellular aging.
Citation: Denham J, Nelson CP, O’Brien BJ, Nankervis SA, Denniff M, Harvey JT, et al. (2013) Longer Leukocyte Telomeres Are Associated with Ultra-Endurance Exercise Independent of Cardiovascular Risk Factors. PLoS ONE 8(7):
e69377.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069377
Editor: Gabriele Saretzki, University of Newcastle, United Kingdom
Received: March 20, 2013; Accepted: June 7, 2013; Published: July 31, 2013
Copyright: © 2013 Denham et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This study was funded by the LEW Carty Charitable Fund, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia to FJC. MT is supported by British Heart Foundation (PG/12/9/29376). CPN is funded by the NIHR Leicester Cardiovascular BRU and VC and NJS are funded by the British Heart Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Description
This study investigates the association between ultra-endurance exercise and leukocyte telomere length.