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Increased telomerase activity and vitamin D supplementation in overweight African Americans

International Journal of Obesity volume 36, pages 805–809 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

We aimed to investigate whether vitamin D supplementation modulates peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) telomerase activity in overweight African Americans.

Design:

A double blind, randomized and placebo-controlled clinical trial (#NCT01141192) was recently conducted.

Subjects And Methods:

African-American adults were randomly assigned to either the placebo, or the vitamin D group (60 000 IU per month (equivalent to ∼2000 IU per day) oral vitamin D3 supplementation). Fresh PBMCs were collected from 37 subjects (18 in the placebo group and 19 in the vitamin D group), both at baseline and 16 weeks. PBMC telomerase activity was measured by the telomeric repeat amplification protocol.

Results:

Serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels increased from 40.7±15.7 at baseline to 48.1±17.5 nmol l–1 at posttest (P=0.004) in the placebo group, and from 35.4±11.3 at baseline to 103.7±31.5 nmol l–1 at posttests (P<0.0001) in the vitamin D group. In the vitamin D group, PBMC telomerase activity increased by 19.2% from baseline (1.56±0.29 absorbance reading unit (AU)) to posttest (1.86±0.42 AU, P<0.0001). The significance persisted after controlling for age, sex and body mass index (P=0.039). PBMC telomerase activity in the placebo group did not change from baseline (1.43±0.26 AU) to posttest (1.46±0.27 AU, P=0.157).

Conclusion:

Vitamin D supplementation significantly increased PBMC telomerase activity in overweight African Americans. Our data suggest that vitamin D may improve telomere maintenance and prevent cell senescence and counteract obesity-induced acceleration of cellular aging.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our subjects for participating in the study. This study was funded by the Georgia Health Science University Diabetes and Obesity Discovery Institute (JW) and Cardiovascular Discovery Institute (HZ). HZ and YD are also supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute HL77230 and HL69999.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Georgia Prevention Institute, Georgia Health Sciences University, Augusta, GA, USA

    H Zhu, D Guo, I S Stallmann-Jorgensen, Y Huang, S Parikh & Y Dong

  2. Medical College, Wuhan University, Wuhan, People's Republic of China

    K Li

  3. Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Georgia Health Sciences University, Augusta, GA, USA

    J Pedersen-White

  4. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Georgia Health Sciences University, Augusta, GA, USA

    K Liu

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Zhu, H., Guo, D., Li, K. et al. Increased telomerase activity and vitamin D supplementation in overweight African Americans. Int J Obes 36, 805–809 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2011.197

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