Abstract
Purpose: :
Telomere length is shortened in syndromes with premature aging. Longer telomeres have been associated with a long life expectancy. Smoking and high BMI with insulin resistance, known risk factors for AMD have been found to be associated with shortening of telomere length. In view of these findings, we wanted to analyze a possible association between telomere length and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Methods: :
Telomere length was analysed from peripheral leucocyte DNA obtained from 121 patients with AMD and 77 age-matched controls. Of the AMD patients 100 had neovascular AMD, 17 had large drusen and 4 had central geographic atrophy. Mean age of the patients and controls were 75.40 and 76.74 , respectively.
Results: :
The mean telomere length was 7.76 (SD=0.71) in AMD patients and 7.83(0.69) in controls (p=0.485). The telomere length did not show association with AMD in logistic regression analysis: OR 1.161, p=0.483, corrected for age and gender OR 1.191, p=0.359, corrected for age, gender and smoking history OR 1.234, p=0.360. Lowest or highest quartiles of telomere length did not show significant association with AMD.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • aging • chromatic mechanisms