Association Analysis Between Genetic Variation In TERC, Telomere Length And Risk Of Coronary Heart Disease

Aim-we aimed to investigate the association between genetic variation in telomeraseRNA component (TERC), leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and risk of coronary heartdisease (CHD) and tested the hypothesis weather the LTL influences the severity of CHD.Methods-we conducted an analysis of LTL focusing on two SNPs in2community-basedcohort populations comprising3500Chinese Han individuals. The LTL ratio wasdetermined in a case-control setting involving4351participants:2211healthy individualsand2140CHD patients. The association between LTL and the severity of CHD as well asthe presence and extent of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular lesions were tested.Results-Our results confirmed the association of rs12696304and rs16847897with LTLin Chinese Han population (P=1.63×10-6and P=1.44×10-7, respectively). However, theseSNPs confer a moderate risk for CHD but did not achieve significant threshold aftermultiple corrections. Decreased LTL ratio was associated with CHD (odds ratio [OR],1.13;95%confidence interval [CI],1.02–1.34; P<0.01). In addition, the LTL ratio in CHDpatients was related to numbers of vascular disease lesions.Conclusions-our results don’t support a causal role of LTL for the development of CHD.However, the LTL maybe related to the severity of disease.