Salivary Telomere Length in Obese and Nonobese Young Adults of South Indian urban city: cross-sectional study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Obesity is defined as a condition of possessing excessive body fat, which reduces life expectancy and accelerates ageing. According to WHO (2014), it was estimated that more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight out of which 600 million were obese. In India about 3% of male and 12.6% of the female population is obese. Obesity accelerates the rate by which telomeres shortens which is an indicator of cellular ageing. To date, no study has been conducted in India to assess the variation of various anthropometric factors using a questionnaire based on the subject’s physical activity and eating habits, and relating obesity with Telomere Length (TL). No one has done a similar study using saliva as a tool for studying TL. OBJECTIVE To assess the variation of various anthropometric factors using a questionnaire based on the subject’s physical activity and eating habits, and relating obesity with Telomere Length (TL) METHODS Young adults were randomly selected from different colleges of the city and their BMI, Waist to Hip Ratio was calculated. Individuals were then categorized as obese or non-obese based on their BMI and a questionnaire was given to each participant to assess their daily physical activity and eating habits. Saliva was collected from 77 participants and DNA was extracted. Following this, Real-time PCR(RT-PCR) was performed on these samples. Numerical outcomes were summarized as Mean ± Standard deviation and Chi square test was performed for associations. Data analysis of questionnaire was performed (using SPSS) and was correlated to calculated the telomere length. RESULTS After RT-PCR was done, Ct values were obtained for TELO and 36B4 for each sample and the relative telomere length was determined by calculating the relative ratio of telomere (T) and single copy gene (S) PCR products which is expressed as T/S. It was found that 30 males, among whom 18 were obese, shared an inverse relation with TL (p<0.05), whereas in 47 females, no significant results were obtained. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, TL is negatively co-related to obesity. A significant variation of TL and obesity was observed in males (p<0.05) while no significant relationship was established among females. However further study or larger sample size is needed to draw firm conclusions.