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Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is a biomarker for cellular aging and diseases. Its shortening increases genome instability, encouraging susceptibility to various diseases, including cancer. Likewise, global DNA hypomethylation, an epigenetic mechanism, increases genome instability and disease susceptibility. Inflammation is a risk factor for both LTL shortening and global DNA hypomethylation as well as various diseases. Limited studies have suggested that global DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism in regulating LTL in adult patient populations. However, the relationships among global DNA methylation, LTL and the influence of inflammation have not been investigated in healthy and young populations.

Our three hypothese were: (1) that global DNA methylation level would be positively associated with LTL; (2) that higher levels of inflammation would be associated with lower …