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Ramin Farzaneh-Far, MD; Jue Lin, PhD; Elissa S. Epel, PhD; William S. Harris, PhD; Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD; Mary A. Whooley, MD

JAMA. 2010;303(3):250-257.

Context  Increased dietary intake of marine omega-3 fatty acids is associated with prolonged survival in patients with coronary heart disease. However, the mechanisms underlying this protective effect are poorly understood.

Objective  To investigate the association of omega-3 fatty acid blood levels with temporal changes in telomere length, an emerging marker of biological age.

Design, Setting, and Participants  Prospective cohort study of 608 ambulatory outpatients in California with stable coronary artery disease recruited from the Heart and Soul Study between September 2000 and December 2002 and followed up to January 2009 (median, 6.0 years; range, 5.0-8.1 years).

Main Outcome Measures  We measured leukocyte telomere length at baseline and again after 5 years of follow-up. Multivariable linear and logistic regression models were used to investigate the association of baseline levels of omega-3 fatty acids (docosahexaenoic acid [DHA] and eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA]) with subsequent change in telomere length.

Results  Individuals in the lowest quartile of DHA+EPA experienced the fastest rate of telomere shortening (0.13 telomere-to-single-copy gene ratio [T/S] units over 5 years; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.09-0.17), whereas those in the highest quartile experienced the slowest rate of telomere shortening (0.05 T/S units over 5 years; 95% CI, 0.02-0.08; P < .001 for linear trend across quartiles). Levels of DHA+EPA were associated with less telomere shortening before (unadjusted β coefficient x 10^–3 = 0.06; 95% CI, 0.02-0.10) and after (adjusted β coefficient x 10^–3 = 0.05; 95% CI, 0.01-0.08) sequential adjustment for established risk factors and potential confounders. Each 1-SD increase in DHA+EPA levels was associated with a 32% reduction in the odds of telomere shortening (adjusted odds ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.47-0.98).

Conclusion  Among this cohort of patients with coronary artery disease, there was an inverse relationship between baseline blood levels of marine omega-3 fatty acids and the rate of telomere shortening over 5 years.

Author Affiliations: Division of Cardiology, San Francisco General Hospital (Dr Farzaneh-Far), Departments of Medicine (Drs Farzaneh-Far and Whooley), Biochemistry and Biophysics (Drs Lin and Blackburn), Psychiatry (Dr Epel), and Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Dr Whooley), University of California, San Francisco, and Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Dr Whooley), San Francisco; and Sanford Research/USD and Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls (Dr Harris).

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