Association of renal function, telomere length, and markers of chronic inflammation in patients without chronic kidney and cardiovascular diseases

Decreased renal function is diagnosed in a great number of people aged over 60. Decreased glomerular filtrationrate varies widely within different age ranges. One of the probable mechanisms associated with the steeper decline of renal function may be a shortening in telomere length due to some chronic inflammation. The objective of this research was to study the association of renal function with telomere length and the indicators of chronic inflammation in patients without chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular diseases. The study involved 253 patients (81 men and 172 women) with the mean age of 51.5 ± 13.3 years without chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular diseases. Of the participants, 55 patients had hypertension of 1‒2 degree, 46 patients had normal parameters of renal function, and 207 participants were characterized by a mild failure in renal function. The level of albuminuria in all patients was below 30 mg/24 h. A multivariate linear regression analysis, with consideration of age- and gender-related differences, has shown a statistically significant association of albuminuria levels with telomere lengths (p = 0.023), CRP (p = 0.047), and fibrinogen (p = 0.001). No associations have been found between telomere length and inflammatory markers, on the one hand, and the levels of glomerular filtration rate, urea and creatinine, on the other hand, although the latter well correlated with age, (p < 0.001). It has been shown that albuminuria is associated with chronic inflammation and telomere length (the marker of replicative cell senescence) to a larger extent than all other renal function indicators under study. Albuminuria can be regarded as the principal target for a therapeutic approach to prevent changes in renal function and the vascular wall.