Effect of intensive exercise in early adult life on telomere length in later life in men

A career as an elite-class male athlete seems to improve meta-bolic heath in later life and is also associated with longer life expectancy. Telomere length is a biomarker of biological cellu-lar ageing and could thus predict morbidity and mortality. The main aim of this study was to assess the association between vigorous elite-class physical activity during young adulthood on later life leukocyte telomere length (LTL). The study partici-pants consist of former male Finnish elite athletes (n = 392) and their age-matched controls (n = 207). Relative telomere length was determined from peripheral blood leukocytes by quantita-tive real-time polymerase chain reaction. Volume of leisure-time phy…