The Association of Ramadan Fasting on Relative Leukocyte Telomere Length in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

BACKGROUND

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is considered a biomarker of cellular senescence. Previous studies have reported the associations between shortened telomere length and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the role of underlying factors remained unclear. While Ramadan fasting has consistently been shown to improve anthropometric and metabolic parameters in T2DM, its effect on cellular senescence has scarcely been reported.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to determine whether Ramadan Fasting affects leukocyte telomere length in persons with T2DM.

METHODOLOGY: An interventional before-and-after study was conducted on 40 to 60-year-old subjects with T2DM consecutively recruited before Ramadan fasting (May 2018 and May 2019) from the Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic at Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia. Relative LTL was compared between 48 subjects before Ramadan fasting and after at least 14 days of fasting and then adjusted with key clinical and biochemical parameters.

RESULTS

The relative rLTL in subjects with T2DM was comparable between before and after at least 14 days of Ramadan fasting. (0.391 [0.021-1.515] vs 1.117 [0.528-1.741], p = 0.112).

CONCLUSION

No significant difference was found in relative leukocyte telomere length among subjects with type 2 diabetes who have undergone Ramadan fasting for at least 14 days. However, this study showed a tendency to have an increase in relative LTL.