Summary: The new results of the vital randomized trial show that the daily supplementation of vitamin D3 helps preserve the length of telomeres in older adults, which could slow a key process of biological aging. Telomeres are protective limits on chromosomes that are shortened with age and are associated with chronic diseases.
For four years, those who took vitamin D experienced a shortening of telomeres significantly less, equivalent to almost three years of delayed aging, compared to those who took a placebo. These findings support vitamin D as a promising intervention to reduce age -related cell decrease, although more research is needed to confirm long -term benefits.
Key facts:
Anti -aging effect: supplementation with vitamin D3 slowed the shortening of telomeres for 4 years. Cell protection: Participants retained the additional 3 -year equivalent of telomeres. No Omega-3 effect: Omega-3 supplementation did not significantly affect the length of telomeres.
Source: Mass General
The results of the vital randomized testing reveal that vitamin D supplementation helps maintain telomeres, protective limits at the ends of chromosomes that are shortened during aging and are linked to the development of certain diseases.
The new report, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is based on data from a vital substudia led by Mass General Brigham researchers and Medical College of Georgia, and supports a promising role in the deceleration of a route for biological aging.
“Vital is the first large -scale randomized essay already shows that vitamin D supplements protect telomeres and retain the length of telomeres,” said co -author Joann Manson, MD, principal researcher of the vital and head of the Division of Preventive Medicine in Brigham and Women’s Hospital, founding member of the Mass general system of Mass Brigham Healthcare.
“This is of particular interest because vital had also shown benefits of vitamin D to reduce inflammation and reduce the risks of chronic aging diseases selected, such as advanced cancer and autoimmune disease.”
Telomeres are made of repeated sequences of DNA, or base pairs, which prevent the ends of the chromosome from degrading or merge with other chromosomes. The shortening of telomeres is a natural part of aging and is associated with a greater risk of several age -related diseases.
Some short -scale short -scale studies have suggested that supplementation with fatty acids of vitamin D or Omega 3 can help support telomeres, but the results have been inconsistent.
Vital is a randomized, double blind, controlled with vitamin D3 supplementation placebo (2,000 IU/day) and omega 3 fatty acids (1 g/day) that tracked US females of 55 years and over and the men of 50 years and older for five years.
The substudy of vital telomeres included 1,054 of these participants, whose length of telomeres in white blood cells was evaluated at the beginning and in year 2 and year 4.
Compared to placebo, taking vitamin D3 supplements significantly reduced the shortening of telomeres for four years, avoiding the equivalent of almost three years of aging compared to the placebo. Supplementation with omega 3 fatty acids did not have a significant effect on the length of telomeres during follow -up.
“Our findings suggest that the specific supplementation of vitamin D can be a promising strategy to counteract a biological aging process, although more research is justified,” said Haidong Zhu, PHD, first author of the report and a molecular geneticist in the Medical College of Georgia, University of Augusta.
Authority: In addition to the authors of Manson, Mass General Brigham include Nancy R. Cook, William Christen and I-Min Lee. Additional authors include Haidong Zhu, Bayu B. Bekele, Li Chen, Kevin J. Kane, Ying Huang, Wenju Li and Yanbin Dong.
Disseminations: The authors declare that they do not have competitive financial interests or personal relationships that may have seemed to influence the work reported in this document.
Financing: This work was supported by the National Institute of Heart, Lunmones and Blood (R01 HL131674-01). The main vital essay is backed by R01 AT011729. The studies of the study did not have any role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or report writing, as well as in the decision to send the document for publication.
On this aging research news
Author: Alexandra Pantano
Source: Mass General
Contact: Alexandra Pantano – Mass General
Image: The image is accredited to Neuroscience News
Original research: open access.
“Vitamin D3 and marine supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids and leukocyte telomeres: 4-year findings of the vital randomized controlled test” by Joann Manson et al. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Abstract
Vitamin D3 and supplementation with Omega-3 marine fatty acids and leukocyte telomeres: 4-year findings of the vital randomized controlled test
Background
Limited studies suggest that the supplementation of fatty acids of vitamin D or omega 3 (N-3 fas) can be beneficial for the maintenance of telomeres, however, there is a lack of evidence of a large randomized clinical trial. We presume that supplementation with vitamin D O N-3 FAS reduces the length of the leukocyte telomeres (LTL) in the test of the vitamin D and Omega-3 (vital) test test.
Methods
Vital is a large, randomized, double-blind, placebo trial with a 2 x 2 factor design of vitamin D3 supplements (2,000 IU/day) and N-3 marine supplements (1 g/day) for 5 years between a representative sample of 25,871 American women ≥55 and men ≥50 years of age. The study of vital telomeres (NCT04386577) included 1054 participants who were evaluated in person at the Center for Harvard Clinical and Trans Translations.
The LTL was determined by the absolute method of reaction reaction of quantitative reaction of the quantification polymerase of the human length of the polymerase (PCR) at the beginning, year 2 and year 4. The specified primary results measures were changes in the LTL between the baseline, year 2 and year 4. The intervention effect analysis used linear regression models of mixed effects.
Results
LTL was measured in a total of 2,571 samples of the 1031 participants at the beginning, year 2 and year 4. Compared to placebo, vitamin D3 supplementation significantly decreased LTL wear by 0.14 kilo of base pairs (KB) (0.01, 0.27) for 4 years (p = 0.039).
The general trends analysis showed that the vitamin D3 supplements group had LTL that were approximately 0.035 kB higher per year of follow -up compared to the Placebo group (0.002, 0.07, p = 0.037). N-3 fas marine supplementation did not have a significant effect on LTL in year 2 or year 4.
Conclusion
4 years of supplementation with 2000 IU/day of vitamin D3 reduced the wear of telomeres in 140 bp, which suggests that the daily supplementation of vitamin D3 with or without N-3 fas could have a role in counteracting the erosion of telomeres or cell senesion.
