• Kwun Kiu Wong, Feifei Cheng, Cadmon K P Lim, Claudia H T Tam, Greg Tutino, Lai Yuk Yuen, Chi Chiu Wang, Yong Hou, ChanMichael H MMHM0000-0003-1949-1666Department of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong., Chung Shun Ho, Mugdha V Joglekar, Anandwardhan A Hardikar, Alicia J Jenkins, Boyd E Metzger, William L Lowe, Wing Hung Tam, and MaRonald C WRCW0000-0002-1227-803XDepartment of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong. rcwma@cuhk.edu.hk.Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong. rcwma@cu.
• Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
• Bmc Med. 2022 Dec 20; 20 (1): 490490.

BackgroundLeukocyte telomere length (LTL) is suggested to be a biomarker of biological age and reported to be associated with metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Glucose metabolic traits including glucose and insulin levels have been reported to be associated with LTL in adulthood. However, there is relatively little research focusing on children's LTL and the association with prenatal exposures. This study investigates the relationship between maternal and offspring glucose metabolism with offspring LTL in early life.MethodsThis study included 882 mother-child pairs from the HAPO Hong Kong Field Centre, with children evaluated at age 7.0 ± 0.4 (mean ± SD) years. Glucose metabolic traits including maternal post-load glucose during pregnancy, children's glucose and insulin levels, and their derived indices at follow-up were measured or calculated. Offspring LTL was assessed using real-time polymerase chain reaction.ResultsSex- and age-adjusted children's LTL was found to be associated with children's HOMA-IR (β=-0.046 ± 0.016, p=0.005). Interestingly, both children's and maternal post-load glucose levels were positively associated with children's LTL. However, negative associations were observed between children's LTL and children's OGTT insulin levels. In addition, the LTL in females was more strongly associated with pancreatic beta-cell function whilst LTL in males was more strongly associated with OGTT glucose levels.ConclusionsOur findings suggest a close association between maternal and offspring glucose metabolic traits with early life LTL, with the offspring sex as an important modifier of the disparate relationships in insulin production and response.© 2022. The Author(s).

21 keywords...

hide…