Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 15;14(6):1244.
doi: 10.3390/nu14061244.

Association between Telomere Length and Pediatric Obesity: A Systematic Review

Christina Raftopoulou  1 , George Paltoglou  2 , Evangelia Charmandari  1   2
Affiliations

Association between Telomere Length and Pediatric Obesity: A Systematic Review

Christina Raftopoulou et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Objective: Telomere length (TL) is a robust marker of biological aging, and increased telomere attrition is noted in adults with obesity. The primary objective of this systematic review was to summarize current knowledge on the effects of childhood obesity in TL. The secondary objective was to assess the effect of weight management interventions in TL.

Methods: The following databases were searched: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Heal-link.gr from inception to September 2021. The search was performed using the following combinations of terms: "telomer*" [All Fields] AND ("length" [All Fields] OR "lengths" [All Fields]) AND "obes*" [All Fields] AND ("child*" [All Fields] OR "adolescen*" [All Fields]).

Results: A total of 16 original articles were included in this systematic review. Eleven of them were cross-sectional and five were lifestyle interventions.

Conclusions: There was a tendency towards a negative association between childhood obesity and TL. Life-style interventions in children have been associated with increased TL peripherally, indicating a possible association of the redistribution of younger cells in the periphery with the favorable effect of these interventions. Further prospective studies with larger sample sizes that employ other markers of cell aging would potentially elucidate this important mechanistic relation.

Keywords: adolescence; childhood; leukocyte telomere length; obesity; overweight.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the study selection process.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. De Lange T. Shelterin: The protein complex that shapes and safeguards human telomeres. Genes Dev. 2005;19:2100–2110. doi: 10.1101/gad.1346005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lindsey J., McGill N.I., Lindsey L.A., Green D.K., Cooke H.J. In vivo loss of telomeric repeats with age in humans. Mutat. Res. 1991;256:45–48. doi: 10.1016/0921-8734(91)90032-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Moyzis R.K., Buckingham J.M., Cram L.S., Dani M., Deaven L.L., Jones M.D., Meyne J., Ratliff R.L., Wu J.R. A highly conserved repetitive DNA sequence, (TTAGGG)n, present at the telomeres of human chromosomes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 1988;85:6622–6626. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.18.6622. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Greider C.W., Blackburn E.H. Identification of a specific telomere terminal transferase activity in Tetrahymena extracts. Pt 1Cell. 1985;43:405–413. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90170-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hiyama E., Hiyama K. Telomere and telomerase in stem cells. Br. J. Cancer. 2007;96:1020–1024. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6603671. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types