Telomere length and vascular wall in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Aim. To study the relationship between changes in the artery structure and function and peripheral lymphocyte telomere length in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). Materials and methods. A total of 50 patients with T2DM and without clinical manifestations of cardiovascular disease (CVD) were included in the study; the control group consisted of 49 people. The following tests were conducted for all study participants: carbohydrate metabolism evaluation, carotid artery duplex scan to measure intima-media complex thickness (IMT) and to determine the presence of atherosclerotic plaques, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurement and lymphocyte telomere length measurement. Results. The vascular changes were more pronounced in patients with T2DM than in controls. The telomeres were shorter in patients with T2DM than in those without diabetes (9.53 +/- 0.1 vs 9.86 +/- 0.1, p=0.033). The participants were divided according to the telomere length. Among patients with T2DM, there were significant differences in the condition of the vascular wall [PWV: 10.58 +/- 0.1 m/s in patients with 'long' telomeres and 15.08 +/- 1.3 m/s in patients with 'short' telomeres; IMT: 0.80 +/- 0.09 mm in patients with 'long' telomeres and 0.87 +/- 0.05 mm in patients with 'short' telomeres (p=0.024)]. There were no significant differences in the arterial structure between the patient and control groups with 'long' telomeres [PWV: 10.58 +/- 0.1 m/s vs 10.5 +/- 0.5 m/s (p=0.913); IMT: 0.080 +/- 0.09 mm vs 0.73 +/- 0.03 mm (p=0.12). However, there were significant differences in the vascular wall condition between the patient and control groups with 'short' telomeres [PWV: 15.08 +/- 1.3 m/s vs, 10.7 +/- 0.5 m/s (p=0.015); IMT: 0.87 +/- 0.1 vs 0.78 +/- 0.1 (p=0.03)]. Conclusions. The signs of vascular ageing were more pronounced in patients with T2DM than in controls. However, despite diabetes, vascular changes were minimal in patients with 'long' lymphocyte telomeres, comparable with the state of the vascular walls in healthy individuals. Thus, enhanced lymphocyte telomere length may have a protective effect on the vascular wall and may prevent damage from carbohydrate metabolism disorders.