Short telomere length is associated with arterial aging in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

It is known that glucose disturbances contribute to micro- and macrovascular complications and vascular aging. Telomere length is considered to be a cellular aging biomarker. It is important to determine the telomere length role in vascular structural and functional changes in patients with diabetes mellitus. We conducted a cross-sectional observational study in a high-risk population from Moscow, Russia. The study included 50 patients with diabetes and without clinical cardiovascular disease and 49 control group participants. Glucose metabolism assessment tests, measuring intima–media complex thickness and determining the presence of atherosclerotic plaques, pulse wave velocity measurement, and telomere length measurement were administered to all participants. Vascular changes were more dramatic in patients with diabetes than in the control group, and the telomeres were shorter in patients with diabetes. Significant differences were found in the vascular wall condition among diabetes patients, and there were no substantial differences in the arterial structure between patients with ‘long’ telomeres; however, there were statistically significant differences in the vascular wall condition between patients with ‘short’ telomeres. Vascular ageing signs were more prominent in patients with diabetes. However, despite diabetes, vascular changes in patients with long telomeres were very modest and were similar to the vascular walls in healthy individuals. Thus, long lymphocyte telomeres may have a protective effect on the vascular wall and may prevent vascular wall deterioration caused by glucose metabolism disorders.

Leukocyte telomere length is inversely associated with post-load but not with fasting plasma glucose levels

“…Unfortunately, these studies do not give results of a similar evaluation for 2 h OGTT levels. 22,23 It is surprising that although the association between IGT and LTL shortening was revealed a long time ago, epidemiological studies of correlational association between LTL and distinctly FPG and 2 h OGTT levels such as ours seem to not have been previously performed. Greek researchers reported 24 that significant telomerase activity was detected in circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells in persons with metabolic syndrome (a cluster of cardiovascular and pro-thrombotic risk factors, such as insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidemia, obesity, and elevated blood pressure), which may partially explain the absence of association between several indicators of insulin resistance (FPG and LTL) that we have revealed.…”

Telomere mean length in patients with diabetic retinopathy

“…Many of these have attempted to understand the role of telomeres in human cancer 14 15 , hypertension and atherosclerosis 16 . Recently, it was shown that patients with diabetes had more dramatic vascular changes in comparison to the control group resulting in shorter telomeres 17 . Keeping all this in mind we hypothesized that there may be a connection between telomere length and diabetic retinopathy.…”

“Inflammaging” as a Druggable Target: A Senescence‐Associated Secretory Phenotype—Centered View of Type 2 Diabetes

“…LTL is significantly shorter in T2DM patients compared with controls over a wide age range and is significantly associated with the presence and number of diabetes complications [ 65 ]. Finally, a strong association has been highlighted between telomere length and the presence of some diabetes complications and general arterial aging [ 66 , 67 ].…”