Relationship between short telomere length and stroke

Abstract

Background:Several epidemiological studies had been carried out in different population cohorts to estimate the relationship between the shortened telomere length and stroke. However, the results still remained dispute. Consequently, we conducted this meta-analysis to estimate the relationship between them.Methods:PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science were systematically searched for related articles to evaluate the association between “stroke” and “telomere length. STATA 12.0 software was used to perform the meta-analysis. The Cochran Q test and inconsistency index (I2) were used to assess the heterogeneity. Begg funnel plot and Egger test were used to assess publication bias.Results:The meta-analysis was composed of 11 studies, consisting of 25,340 participants. We found a significant relationship between shortened telomere length and stroke (OR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.13–2.0; P = .005); however, in the prospective and retrospective study subgroup, we did not find a statistical significant relationship between shortened telomere length and stroke (the prospective subgroup: OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1–1.98; P = .051) (the retrospective subgroup: OR: 1.89, 95% CI: 0.96–3.72; P = .067).

No Causal Effect of Telomere Length on Ischemic Stroke and Its Subtypes: A Mendelian Randomization Study

“…Similar results were also found in a pool-analysis [35]. In contrast to a meta-analysis that aggregated data from 11 cohort studies, the association between TL and stroke was found to be significant in a pooled analysis, but was not found in subgroup analysis, in either the prospective or retrospective study subgroups [36].…”

Association between telomere length in peripheral blood leukocytes and risk of ischemic stroke in a Han Chinese population: a linear and non-linear Mendelian randomization analysis

“…Despite previous retrospective observational studies reporting an TL-stroke association, such a relationship has not been firmly supported by evidence from prospective cohort studies. Subgroup analysis of four meta-analysis (stratified by study design) have shown consistent results that shorter TL were not significantly associated with stroke risk in prospective studies or in studies with a high quality score [ 18 , 19 , 33 , 34 ]. In a recent meta-analysis, shorter TL was associated with a significant 11% higher risk for stroke (RR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.05–1.19), although with significant heterogeneity between studies ( I 2 = 81.1%, P het < 0.001) [ 33 ].…”

“…In contrast, evidence also suggests that shorter telomeres were not significantly associated with stroke risk [ 15 – 17 ]. However, meta-analysis have shown that there were less certain results to support the relationship between TL and stroke [ 18 , 19 ].…”

An integrative study of five biological clocks in somatic and mental health

“…Specifically, telomere length has been most extensively researched and was found to be shorter in various somatic conditions 8 , all-cause mortality 9,10 and a range of psychiatric disorders 11 . Advanced epigenetic age has also been linked to worse somatic health, mortality 12 , depressive disorder 7,13 and post-traumatic stress disorder 14 , although some studies have found associations with the opposite direction of effect 15,16 .…”