Association between leukocyte telomere length and incident glaucoma: A prospective UK biobank study

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) has been associated with various diseases, including age-related eye diseases such as cataract and age-related macular degeneration. However, the role of LTL in the longitudinal development of glaucoma is still unknown. Here we prospectively evaluate the association of LTL with glaucoma incidence and related traits, in the UK Biobank cohort.

The study cohort included 419,603 participants with complete baseline data for glaucoma analyses. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association between LTL and the risk of glaucoma incidence, and multivariable linear regression was employed to test the association between LTL and glaucoma-related traits.

During a 13.58-year follow-up period, 7385 (1.76%) participants developed glaucoma. No association between LTL and incident glaucoma was found in either Model 1 (adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity and the ancestry components; HR = 1.011, 95% CI: 0.990-1.033; P = 0.311), or Model 2 (additionally adjusted for smoking status, alcohol consumption, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, education level, Townsend Deprivation Index, polygenic risk score for glaucoma, and history of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases; HR = 1.010, 95% CI: 0.988-1.032; P = 0.367). Non-significant associations were also observed for glaucoma-related traits, including the retinal nerve fibre layer, ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer, and intraocular pressure with LTL (all P-values > 0.05), but LTL was associated with a slightly increased vertical cup-to-disc ratio (P = 0.009).

This study suggested that LTL is not a major biomarker for incident glaucoma in the UK Biobank population. Further studies in different populations are warranted.