Relative Telomere Length and Stroke Risk in a Chinese Han Population

This study aimed to further understand the role of relative telomere length (RTL) in susceptibility to stroke and investigate the association regulator of telomere elongation helicase 1 (RETL1) gene polymorphisms and RTL. RTL was measured using the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) from 300 stroke patients and 299 healthy controls. Genotyping was performed using the Sequenom MassARRAY platform. The results indicated that stroke patients had significantly shorter median RTL than controls (P<0.001). Compared with the longer RTL (0.766), the shorter RTL (<0.766) was significantly increased the risk of stroke (odds ratio [OR]=8.44, 95% confidence interval [CI] 5.42-13.14, P<0.001). The RTL was categorized into tertiles, we found that the shorter RTL (0.515-1.366) (OR=16.27, 95% CI 7.72-34.29, P<0.001) and lowest RTL (<0.515) (OR=30.63, 95% CI 14.27-65.75, P<0.001) were significantly increased stroke risk compared with the highest RTL (>1.366). Stratified analysis showed that the shorter RTL was also significantly increased the risk of stroke compared with the longer RTL in male, age <60years and 60years, except the female participants. In addition, individuals with the genotypes AA (rs2297441) and GG (rs6089953) have shorter telomeres than the genotypes GG (P=0.031) and AA (P=0.032), respectively. Our results suggested that shorter RTL was associated with an increased risk of stroke. The association was found between the genotypes AA (rs2297441) and GG (rs6089953) and shorter RTL in case group. Further studies in larger sample size and biological functional assays are warranted to validate our findings.