Association between telomere length and blood pressure among different nutritional status children

Objective This study aims to determine the association between the average leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and the level of blood pressure (BP) in children and to provide basis for the effective prevention of hypertension of children.Methods From the special health research baseline database,a total of 253 children aged 7 to 12 years were selected from Hunan,Tianjin,Liaoning and Shanghai in 2012 based on body mass index (BMI).Participants were categorized into three groups including normal BMI,overweight/moderate obese and severe obese group,with 81,85 and 87 children in each group.Multiplex quantitative real-time PCR was used to measure leukocyte telomere length and calculate the log-transformed length.The association between LTL and the level of BP was analyzed by using Pearson correlation analysis.Results The elevated BP in children aged 7-12 were 15.81% and 24.90% according to National High Blood Pressure Education Program(NHBPEP) and Chinese Hypertension League (CHL),respectively.The prevalence was 17.36% and 28.93% in boys,and 14.39% and 21.21% in girls,boys was higher than that of girls(P>0.05).The LTL and log-LTL was 1.07 and 0.02 in elevated BP (NHBPEP) group and 1.09 and 0.03 in elevated BP(CHL) group,no differences were found between those two groups with normal blood pressure group(P>0.05).Boys and girls showed the same results.The LTL and log-LTL showed no significant differences among normal BMI,overweight/moderate obese and severe obese group.Conclusion There are no significant association between telomere length with normal and elevated blood pressure.However,the results should be validated further in a large population of adults.