Telomere Length: Implications for Atherogenesis

The purpose of the study is to explore the evidence linking telomere length with atherosclerotic ischemic disease.

There has been a recent expansion in strategies for measuring telomere length, including analyzing genome sequence data and capitalizing on genomic loci that associate with telomere length. These, together with more established approaches, have been used to generate a more complete picture of telomere length relationships with ischemic disease. Whereas earlier meta-analyses suggested an association between short leukocyte telomeres and ischemic disease, several recent large population studies now provide particularly compelling data, including an association with cardiovascular mortality. In addition, whether short leukocyte telomeres might be causally related to ischemic disease has been interrogated using Mendelian randomization strategies, which point to shorter leukocyte telomeres as a determining risk factor. Importantly however, the wide, interindividual variability in telomere length still means that a single assessment of leukocyte telomere length in an individual does not reliably report on a biological aging process. In this regard, recent multi-tissue analyses of telomere length dynamics are providing both new mechanistic insights into how telomere length and shortening rates may participate in atherogenesis and risk prediction opportunities. The balance of evidence indicates that short leukocyte telomeres confer a risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Moreover, an integrated analysis of telomere lengths in leukocytes and other tissues may provide a window into individualized telomere dynamics, raising new prospects for risk management.