Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) shortens with age and is potentially a biomarker of human aging.
We examined the relation of LTL with physical ability and cognitive function in 548 same-sex twins from the Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins. LTL was measured by Southern blots of the terminal restriction fragments (TRF). Physical ability was evaluated using a self reported scale of 11 questions, while cognitive function was scored by MMSE and a cognitive composite score sensitive to age-related decline.
A random intercept model revealed a positive, significant association between LTL and physical ability. For every unit increase in physical ability score, LTL increased by 0.066 kb (p = 0.01), equal to approximately three years of age-dependent LTL shortening. A matched case-co-twin design showed that the group consisting of the twins from each pair with the longer LTL also displayed better physical ability (p < 0.01). Moreover, the intra-pair difference in LTL was associated with intra-pair difference in physical ability (p < 0.01), confirming the association. However, we found no association between cognitive function and LTL.
The LTL-physical ability association in the elderly provides further support to the premise that LTL is an index of somatic fitness in the narrow context of human physical health.