Key result
Coronary artery disease is linked to significantly shorter leukocyte telomeres compared to healthy controls.
Why the study?
Leukocyte telomere length shortening is implicated as a cardiovascular risk predictor, but its capacity to predict arterial stiffness in CAD patients was unclear.
Case-Control (n=275)
No
Absolute Event Rate: 0.79% vs 1.08%
p-value: p=<0.001
May reflect cumulative vascular damage in CAD; leaves open whether telomere length improves risk prediction beyond traditional factors.
BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidence implicates leukocyte telomere length (LTL) shortening as a potential risk predictor for cardiovascular disease. Arterial stiffness chronicles the cumulative burden of cardiovascular disease risk factors. Therefore, the capacity of LTL to predict arterial stiffness was examined. METHODS: A total of 275 unrelated Chinese males: 163 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and 112 healthy controls, 40-73 years of age were included in this study. The relative telomere length of leukocytes was determined by a real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Large artery stiffness was measured with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV). RESULTS: The relative telomere length (T/S) ratio was significantly shorter in patients with CAD (0.79 +/- 0.26) than in control subjects (1.08 +/- 0.22) (p<0.001). The correlation between LTL and PWV in patients with CAD was stronger than that in the controls (r= -0.467, r(2)=0.227, p<0.001 for patients with CAD versus r= -0.223; r(2)=0.050; p=0.018 for controls). The log(e)-transformed T/S ratio was inversely correlated with age (r= -0.345; p<0.001), PWV (r= -0.326; p<0.001) and C-reactive protein ( r= -0.133; p=0.027). CONCLUSIONS: The data show an association of leukocyte telomere length shortening with increased arterial stiffness and cardiovascular burden, suggesting that telomere length is a biomarker of large artery elasticity and CAD. Further studies are warranted to study the role of LTL dynamics in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.
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Wang et al. (2010) conducted a case-control in Coronary Artery Disease (n=275). Coronary artery disease vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Relative leukocyte telomere length (T/S ratio) (p=<0.001). Patients with coronary artery disease had significantly shorter mean leukocyte telomere length compared to healthy controls (T/S ratio 0.79 vs 1.08, p<0.001), which inversely correlated with pulse wave velocity.
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