Telomere integrity is influenced by oxidative stress. Also, inflammation-related factors, including nutritional factors, could modulate telomere integrity. The relationship between a posteriori-derived dietary patterns and telomere length (TL) has been scarcely investigated. Thus, our objective was to examine the association between empirically derived dietary patterns ascertained through principal component analysis (PCA) and TL in an older adult Spanish population. A total of 886 older adults (>55 years old; 645 males and 241 females) from the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) cohort were included in the study. TL was measured by monochrome multiplex real-time quantitative PCR. Age-adjusted TL was used for all analyses. Dietary patterns were identified by PCA based on thirty predefined candidate food groups collected from a validated 136-food items frequency questionnaire. Generalised linear models were fitted to obtain β-coefficients and their 95 % CI evaluating differences in TL between each of the four upper quintiles of adherence to dietary patterns and the lowest quintile. Sensitivity analyses by rerunning all multiple linear models under different stratifications were performed to evaluate the robustness of our results. Two major dietary patterns were empirically identified, Western dietary pattern (WDP) and Mediterranean dietary pattern (MDP). After adjustment for potential confounders, longer TL was found among subjects in the highest quintile of MDP (β = 0·064; 95 % CI 0·004, 0·123). The WDP showed no significant association with TL. In conclusion, higher adherence to a posteriori-derived MDP was independently associated with longer telomeres in an older adult Spanish population of the SUN project.

中文翻译：

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对经验得出的地中海饮食模式的更高依从性与端粒长度呈正相关：Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) 项目

端粒完整性受氧化应激的影响。此外，炎症相关因素，包括营养因素，可以调节端粒完整性。之间的关系后验的衍生的饮食模式和端粒长度（TL）几乎没有被研究过。因此，我们的目标是检查通过主成分分析 (PCA) 确定的经验得出的饮食模式与西班牙老年人口中的 TL 之间的关联。共有来自 Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) 队列的 886 名老年人（>55 岁；645 名男性和 241 名女性）被纳入研究。TL通过单色多重实时定量PCR测量。年龄调整的 TL 用于所有分析。PCA 根据从经过验证的 136 种食物频率问卷中收集的 30 个预定义的候选食物组来确定饮食模式。拟合广义线性模型以获得β系数及其 95 % CI 评估坚持饮食模式的四个上五分之一和最低五分之一之间的 TL 差异。通过在不同分层下重新运行所有多个线性模型进行敏感性分析，以评估我们结果的稳健性。根据经验确定了两种主要的饮食模式，西方饮食模式（WDP）和地中海饮食模式（MDP）。在对潜在混杂因素进行调整后，在 MDP 最高五分位数的受试者中发现了更长的 TL（β= 0·064；95 % CI 0·004, 0·123)。WDP 与 TL 没有显着关联。总之，更高的坚持后验在 SUN 项目的西班牙老年人群中，衍生的 MDP 与较长的端粒独立相关。