Abstract
Objectives
To determine the association of plasma homocysteine levels with retinal layer thickness in a large community cohort of older adults.
Methods
The Rugao Longevity and Ageing Study is an observational, prospective and community-based cohort study. A total of 989 older adults who underwent spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) were included and analyzed. Foveal, macular retinal nerve fibre layer (mRNFL) and ganglion cell layer plus inner plexiform layer (GC-IPL) thicknesses were measured by SD-OCT. Plasma homocysteine levels were measured using chemiluminescence immunoassay. Linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between plasma homocysteine and retinal layer thickness while controlling for confounding factors.
Results
Of the 989 participants, 500 (50.56%) were men. The mean age was 78.26 (4.58) years, and the mean plasma homocysteine level was 16.38 (8.05) μmol/L. In multivariable analyses, each unit increase in plasma homocysteine was associated with an 8.84 × 10−2 (95% CI: −16.54 × 10−2 to −1.15 × 10−2, p = 0.032) μm decrease in the average inner thickness of the GC-IPL after controlling for confounding factors. The association remained significant even in participants without major cardiovascular disease or diabetes (β = −10.33 × 10−2, 95% CI: −18.49 × 10−2 to −2.18 × 10−2, p = 0.013). No significant associations of plasma homocysteine levels with macular thickness or mRNFL were found in primary and sensitivity analyses (p > 0.05).
Conclusions
Increased plasma homocysteine levels are associated with a thinner GC-IPL. Plasma homocysteine may be a risk factor for thinner retinas in older adults.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge all participants involved in the present study from the RuLAS. We acknowledge the support from the government of Rugao, the Public Health Bureau of Jiang’an township and Rugao city, the Bureau of Civil Affairs, the Rugao People’s Hospital and all the local village physicians.
Funding
This work was financially supported by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC2000400), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81571372), the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFC0904800, 2019YFC0840607), the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (2017ZX09304010), and the Natural Science Foundation of China (81970810). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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HZ, HS, XX, DL and XW: study design, interpretation of results, preparation and editing manuscript. HZ: data analysis. JW and XJ: study design. HZ, HS, XS, XX, DL, GW and XW: data collection. All authors were involved in the preparation of the manuscript and final approval of the submitted and published versions.
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Zhang, H., Shen, H., Gong, W. et al. Plasma homocysteine and macular thickness in older adults—the Rugao Longevity and Aging Study. Eye 36, 1050–1060 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-021-01549-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-021-01549-3
