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Association between leukocyte telomere length and incident glaucoma: A prospective UK biobank study

Eye volume 39, pages 2176–2182 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) has been associated with various diseases, including age-related eye diseases such as cataract and age-related macular degeneration. However, the role of LTL in the longitudinal development of glaucoma is still unknown. Here we prospectively evaluate the association of LTL with glaucoma incidence and related traits, in the UK Biobank cohort.

Methods

The study cohort included 419,603 participants with complete baseline data for glaucoma analyses. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association between LTL and the risk of glaucoma incidence, and multivariable linear regression was employed to test the association between LTL and glaucoma-related traits.

Results

During a 13.58-year follow-up period, 7385 (1.76%) participants developed glaucoma. No association between LTL and incident glaucoma was found in either Model 1 (adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity and the ancestry components; HR = 1.011, 95% CI: 0.990–1.033; P = 0.311), or Model 2 (additionally adjusted for smoking status, alcohol consumption, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, education level, Townsend Deprivation Index, polygenic risk score for glaucoma, and history of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases; HR = 1.010, 95% CI: 0.988–1.032; P = 0.367). Non-significant associations were also observed for glaucoma-related traits, including the retinal nerve fibre layer, ganglion cell–inner plexiform layer, and intraocular pressure with LTL (all P-values > 0.05), but LTL was associated with a slightly increased vertical cup-to-disc ratio (P = 0.009).

Conclusions

This study suggested that LTL is not a major biomarker for incident glaucoma in the UK Biobank population. Further studies in different populations are warranted.

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Fig. 1: Flowchart of study cohort selection from UK Biobank participants.

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Data availability

The data analysed in this study are available at the https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/register-apply/.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the participants in this study and all the research grants that supported this work.

Funding

The work in this paper was supported by the research grants from the Health and Medical Research Fund Hong Kong (07180256 [L.J.C.]); the General Research Fund, Hong Kong (14102122 & 14105320 [C.C.T.]); a Research Matching Grant (RMG) by the Hong Kong Government (8601668 [L.J.C.]); the Endowment Funds for Lam Kin Chung. Jet King-Shing Ho Glaucoma Treatment and Research Centre and Lim Por-Yen Eye Genetics Research Centre, Hong Kong SAR, China; the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Jockey Club Myopia Prevention Programme (No grant no., [J.C.Y]); and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Jockey Club Children Eye Care Programme (No grant no. [J.C.Y]).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Jun Yu, Yuzhou Zhang, Chi Pui Pang, Clement C. Tham, Jason C. Yam & Li Jia Chen

  2. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Clement C. Tham & Li Jia Chen

  3. Hong Kong Eye Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Clement C. Tham & Jason C. Yam

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  1. Jun Yu
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  4. Clement C. Tham
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Contributions

JY, YZ, JCY, and LJC conceived the idea and designed the study; JY and YZ contributed to data acquisition of the study and performed data analyses; JY drafted the manuscript; CPP, CCT, JCY, and LJC provided critical review on the manuscript. All authors approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Clement C. Tham, Jason C. Yam or Li Jia Chen.

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Yu, J., Zhang, Y., Pang, C.P. et al. Association between leukocyte telomere length and incident glaucoma: A prospective UK biobank study. Eye 39, 2176–2182 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-025-03838-7

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