P214 - TELOMERIC LENGTH IN PATIENTS WITH OBESITY AND LIVER FUNCTION TESTS.

P214

TELOMERIC LENGTH IN PATIENTS WITH OBESITY AND LIVER FUNCTION TESTS.

M. García Duque^1,*, M. Ballesteros Pomar¹, E. González Arnaiz¹, D. G. Ariadel Cobo¹, A. M. Urioste Fondo¹, M. Antequera González¹, M. C. Dameto Pons¹, M. Casado Rodríguez¹, A. Niño González¹, M. Marcos Martín²

¹Endocrinology, Hospital Clinico Universitario de León, León, ²Internal Medicine, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

Rationale: Telomeres are structures located at the ends of chromosomes, consisting of repetitive DNA and protein sequences, that protect genetic information during cell division. Telomeres progressively shorten with each replication cycle, a process associated with cellular aging.

Aims: To analyze the relationship between biochemical parameters of liver function and telomere length in patients with obesity.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted on patients with morbid obesity undergoing bariatric surgery at the University Hospital of Salamanca from 2010 to the present. Liver function tests were evaluated by biochemical determination of aspartate aminotransferase(AST), alanine aminotransferase(ALT), alkaline phosphatase(ALP), lactate dehydrogenase(LDH), gamma-glutamyltransferase(GGT) and total bilirubin(TB). Telomere length was measured in blood samples by real-time polymerase chain reaction(PCR) using ScienCell's Absolute Human Telomere Length Quantification qPCR kit. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to analyze the relationship between telomere length and liver function tests.

Results: The study included 94 patients, 75.7% of whom were female, with a mean age of 44.68(SD 12.5) years and a BMI of 50.02(SD 8.6) kg/m2. The correlation between telomeric length and liver function tests was weak for GGT(0.15), AST(0.13), ALT(0.11) and ALP(0.16), and no significant correlation was observed for TB(0.03) and LDH(0.04).

Conclusion: A non-statistically significant weak correlation exists between liver function values and telomere length in patients with morbid obesity. Patients with greater alterations in liver function tests tended to have shorter telomeres, suggesting possible accelerated cellular aging related to obesity. Further research is warranted, potentially including liver biopsy data, a larger sample size, or additional variables, to clarify these relationships.

References: Shin, H.K. et al.Sci Rep 11, 18004 (2021).

Disclosure of Interest: None declared