Relation between Leukocyte Telomere Length and Incident Coronary Heart Disease Events (From the 1995 Canadian Nova Scotia Health Survey)

摘要

Leukocyte telomere length has been proposed as a biomarker of cellular aging and atherosclerosis. We sought to determine whether leukocyte telomere length is independently associated with incident coronary heart disease (CHD) in the general population. Telomere length was measured using a polymerase chain reaction method for participants enrolled in the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey (n=1,917). The primary endpoint was first occurrence of fatal and non-fatal CHD events. During a mean follow-up of 8.7 years, 164 fatal or non-fatal CHD events occurred. Compared to participants in the longest tertile of telomere length, those in the middle and shortest tertiles had increased incidence of CHD events (6.2, 11.2 and 12.2 per 1000 person-years, respectively). After adjustment for demographics, traditional risk factors and inflammatory markers including hs-CRP, IL-6, and sICAM-1, those in the middle tertile had significantly elevated risk for incident CHD (hazard ratio [HR] 1.63, 95% CI 1.07–2.51, p=0.02) compared to the longest tertile, whereas the risk for those in the shortest tertile was non-significantly elevated (HR 1.25, 95% CI 0.82–1.90, p=0.30). In conclusion, these findings do not support a linear association between leukocyte telomere length and incident CHD risk in the general population.