Association Of Relative Telomere Length Research Articles

Alteration of relative telomere length and telomerase reverse transcriptase expression in the granulosa cells of women during aging and assessment of in vitro fertilization outcomes.

Telomere attrition plays a critical role in the reproductive aging process in humans. Telomere length (TL) is typically regulated by telomerase, the main component of which is telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes of relative TL (RTL) and TERT expression in granulosa cells (GCs) during aging and its association with reproduction. Clinical data on the frozen‑thawed embryo transfer cycles of older (>35year old) and younger (≤35year old) women from a single center over a 3‑year period were retrospectively analyzed. Preimplantation genetic testing for chromosome aneuploidies in older women during the same period was also analyzed. Following the analysis of the data, several biological characteristics of senescent GCs were explored. In addition, a total of 160women who were undergoing their first fresh cycle of invitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection were included in the study. GCs were collected from all participants. The changes of RTL and TERT expression in GCs during aging were investigated using quantitative PCR and western blotting. The associations of RTL and TERT with IVF outcomes were also assessed. The clinical data demonstrated that the pregnancy and live birth rates of women aged >35years were ~20% lower than those of women aged ≤35years, and the number of embryos with aneuploidy was 7‑fold of that without euploidy in the older age group. An aging‑induced change in follicle stimulating hormone receptor expression was observed. A shorter TL and increased TERT expression were detected in the older women. A significant inverse correlation between the expression levels of TERT and oocyte yield was identified. However, no association of RTL and TERT with blastocyst formation rate and the probability of clinical pregnancy was detected. It may be concluded that RTL and TERT alterations in GCs are potential determinants of ovarian aging. TERT expression in GCs appears to be a potential biomarker for the prediction of ovarian response, which provides a novel strategy for the assessment of female fertility.

Association of Relative Telomere Length and LINE-1 Methylation with Autism but not with Severity

Autism is associated with genomic instability, which is regulated by telomere length (TL) and index of global methylation (LINE-1). This study will determine relative TL (RTL) and LINE-1 methylation percentage for 69 patients and 33 control subjects to evaluate their potential role as biomarkers for autism. The results displayed a significant decrease of both RTL and LINE-1 methylation in autistic cases relative to controls (P < 0.001). Analysis of receiver operating characteristics curve revealed that both of RTL and LINE-1 methylation percentage have the ability to serve as autism biomarkers (area under the curve = 0.817 and 0.889, respectively). The statistical analysis revealed positive correlation between the two biomarkers (correlation coefficient = 0.439 and P < 0.001).

Association of Relative Telomere Length and Risk of High Human Papillomavirus Load in Cervical Epithelial Cells.

Importunate high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) infection is the most common trigger for the cervical carcinogenesis process. In this respect, the presence of cancer can be imputed to telomere lengthening or shortening. This paper explores the possible correlation between relative telomere length and viral load in two groups of women, namely: those with high-risk HPV infection and those who do not have this infection. Thus, samples comprising of 50 women in each group were evaluated for this research. The Amplisens HPV HCR screen-titre-FRT PCR kite was employed for quantitative analysis. Relative telomere length was quantified by real-time PCR. In each of the two HPV load groups, there was no correlation between age and telomere length. Telomere shortening was found in the cervical cell samples of women with high HPV loads, compared with women in the control group. Telomere shortening is associated with elevated HPV loads.

Telomere length and chronic kidney disease: cause or consequence?

Telomere length is considered as a clock mirroring aging and is influenced by oxidative stress and inflammation. Both conditions are highly prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease and other degenerative disorders, such as cardiovascular disease. However, it is discussed controversially whether short telomeres are causally associated with chronic kidney disease or whether chronic kidney disease is contributing to an attrition of telomere length. Park etal., in this issue of Kidney International, use an extended 2-sample Mendelian randomization analysis with large data sets to shed new light on this research question.

Shorter Leukocyte Telomere Length Is Associated with Worse Survival of Patients with Bladder Cancer and Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Simple SummaryIntrinsic telomere shortening promotes tumorigenesis in cells with impaired DNA damage repair mechanisms, as dysfunctional telomeres lead to chromosomal instability. More recent data show that the telomere length of peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) cells can be a prognostic marker for survival of patients with solid tumors. However, reports on bladder cancer (BC) and renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are not consistent and partly contradictory. Our results show, first, that telomere length is shorter in patients with BC or RCC compared to patients without malignant disease. More importantly, the relative telomere length (RTL) of PBL cells is associated with survival of patients with BC and RCC. Thus, telomere length in PBL cells could be an auxiliary prognostic marker in BC and RCC.Background: Telomeres are protein–DNA complexes at the tips of linear chromosomes. They protect the DNA from end-to-end fusion and exonucleolytic degradation. Shortening of telomeric DNA during aging can generate dysfunctional telomeres, promoting tumorigenesis. More recent data indicate that both short and long telomeres of peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) cells can serve as prognostic biomarkers for cancer risk and may be associated with survival of patients with solid cancers. Telomere length in PBL cells could also be a potential prognostic biomarker for survival in bladder cancer (BC) or renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Methods: The relative telomere length (RTL) of PBL cells was assessed in patients with BC (n = 144) and RCC (n = 144) by using qPCR. A control population of patients without malignant disease (NC, n = 73) was included for comparison. The correlation and association of RTL with histopathological parameters and overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Results: Patients with BC and RCC had significantly shorter telomeres compared to patients without malignant disease. Within the cancer cohorts, multivariate analysis revealed that short RTL is an independent predictor of worse survival in BC (p = 0.039) and RCC (p = 0.041). Conclusion: Patients with BC and RCC had significantly shorter telomeres compared to the normal population. Shorter RTL in BC and RCC was an independent predictor of reduced survival.

Shorter telomeres in children with severe asthma, an indicative of accelerated aging.

Severe therapy-resistant asthma (STRA) is closely associated with distinct clinical and inflammatory pheno-endotypes, which may contribute to the development of age-related comorbidities. Evidence has demonstrated a contribution of accelerated telomere shortening on the poor prognosis of respiratory diseases in adults. Eotaxin-1 (CCL11) is an important chemokine for eosinophilic recruitment and the progression of asthma. In the last years has also been proposed as an age-promoting factor. This study aimed to investigate the association of relative telomere length (rTL) and eotaxin-1 in asthmatic children. Children aged 8-14 years (n=267) were classified as healthy control (HC, n=126), mild asthma (MA, n=124) or severe therapy-resistant asthma (STRA, n=17). rTL was performed by qPCR from peripheral blood. Eotaxin-1 was quantified by ELISA from fresh-frozen plasma. STRA had shorter telomeres compared to HC (p=0.02) and MA (p=0.006). Eotaxin-1 levels were up-regulated in STRA [median; IQR25-75)] [(1,190 pg/mL; 108–2,510)] compared to MA [(638 pg/mL; 134–1,460)] (p=0.03) or HC [(627 pg/mL; 108–1,750)] (p<0.01). Additionally, shorter telomeres were inversely correlated with eotaxin-1 levels in STRA (r=-0.6, p=0.013). Our results suggest that short telomeres and up-regulated eotaxin-1, features of accelerated aging, could prematurely contribute to a senescent phenotype increasing the risk for early development of age-related diseases in asthma.

Results from the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study support association of relative telomere length with mortality in a large cohort of patients with moderate chronic kidney disease

Telomere length is known to be inversely associated with aging and has been proposed as a marker for aging-related diseases. Telomere attrition can be accelerated by oxidative stress and inflammation, both commonly present in patients with chronic kidney disease. Here, we investigated whether relative telomere length is associated with mortality in a large cohort of patients with chronic kidney disease stage G3 and A1-3 or G1-2 with overt proteinuria (A3) at enrollment. Relative telomere length was quantified in peripheral blood by a quantitative PCR method in 4,955 patients from the GCKD study, an ongoing prospective observational cohort. Complete four-year follow-up was available from 4,926 patients in whom we recorded 354 deaths. Relative telomere length was a strong and independent predictor of all-cause mortality. Each decrease of 0.1 relative telomere length unit was highly associated with a 14% increased risk of death (hazard ratio1.14 [95% confidence interval 1.06-1.22]) in a model adjusted for age, sex, baseline eGFR, urine albumin/creatinine ratio, diabetes mellitus, prevalent cardiovascular disease, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, smoking, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, C-reactive protein and serum albumin. This translated to a 75% higher risk for those in the lowest compared to the highest quartile of relative telomere length. The association was mainly driven by 117 cardiovascular deaths (1.20 [1.05-1.35]) as well as 67 deaths due to infections (1.27 [1.07-1.50]). Thus, our findings support an association of shorter telomere length with all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality and death due to infections in patients with moderate chronic kidney disease.

Relative Telomere Length and Cardiovascular Risk Factors.

(1) Background: Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences located at the extremities of chromosomes that maintain genetic stability. Telomere biology is relevant to several human disorders and diseases, specifically cardiovascular disease. To better understand the link between cardiovascular disease and telomere length, we studied the effect of relative telomere length (RTL) on cardiovascular risk factors in a large population-based sample. (2) Methods: RTL was measured by a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction in subjects of the population-based Gutenberg Health Study (n = 4944). We then performed an association study of RTL with known cardiovascular risk factors of smoking status as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. (3) Results: A significant correlation was shown for RTL, with age as a quality control in our study (effect = −0.004, p = 3.2 × 10−47). Analysis of the relation between RTL and cardiovascular risk factors showed a significant association of RTL in patients who were current smokers (effect = −0.016, p = 0.048). No significant associations with RTL were seen for cardiovascular risk factors of LDL cholesterol (p = 0.127), HDL cholesterol (p = 0.713), triglycerides (p = 0.359), smoking (p = 0.328), diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.615), systolic blood pressure (p = 0.949), or BMI (p = 0.903). In a subsequent analysis, we calculated the tertiles of RTL. No significant difference across RTL tertiles was detectable for BMI, blood pressure, lipid levels, or smoking status. Finally, we studied the association of RTL and cardiovascular risk factors stratified by tertiles of age. We found a significant association of RTL and LDL cholesterol in the oldest tertile of age (effect = 0.0004, p = 0.006). (4) Conclusions: We determined the association of relative telomere length and cardiovascular risk factors in a population setting. An association of telomere length with age, current smoking status, as well as with LDL cholesterol in the oldest tertile of age was found, whereas no associations were observed between telomere length and triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure, or BMI.

LUNG FUNCTION AND TELOMERE RELATIVE LENGTH IN CLEAN-UP WORKERS OF CHORNOBYL NPP ACCIDENT IN A REMOTE POST-ACCIDENT PERIOD.

The objective was to study the relationship between functional status of bronchopulmonary system and telomere length in clean-up workers of Chornobyl NPP accident in a remote post-accident period. A study was performed in 113 clean-up workers of Chornobyl NPP accident. Individual do- cumented doses of irradiation in clean-up workers ranged from 1,0 to 880 mSv (330.4 ± 317.7 (M ± SD)). The aver- age age of the Chornobyl NPP participants was (62.21 ± 6.99) years. A complex of functional pulmonary tests (spirometry, body plethysmography, examination of lung diffusion capacity) was performed. Relative telomere length (RTL) was analysed by flow-FISH. There was a tendency to decrease the relative telomere length in clean-up workers with COPD I-II stage and COPD III-IV, compared with patients with the absence of bronchopulmonary diseases (RTL 15,2 ± 2,7). Significantly shorter telomeres were observed in patients with COPD who were exposed to radiation at a dose of more than 500 mSv (13.6 ± 2.5) compared with COPD patients who were exposed at a dose <10 mSv (RTL 15.3 ± 2.3). When analyzing the correlation relationships of the studied indicators, no significant associations were found with the relative telomere length. At this stage of the study no association of relative telomere length with age, body mass index, and functional criteria (FEV1 (l), intrathoracic pressure (ITGV), total lung capacity (TLC), diffusion lung capac- ity (DLCO)) was detected. The analyzed telomere length relationship from liquidators of the Chernobyl found no direct associa- tion with indicators of lung function tests, however, showed a trend towards reducing the relative telomere length in clean-up workers who suffer from COPD and exposed to doses from 100 to 500 mSv and above 500 mSv.

Association of relative telomere length with cardiovascular disease in a large chronic kidney disease cohort: The GCKD study

BackgroundChronic kidney disease (CKD) affects 10–15% of the general population and affected individuals are at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Since telomere length is considered to be involved in biological aging, we tested whether relative telomere length (RTL) might be a marker for these two diseases. MethodsThe German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study is an ongoing prospective cohort study including patients with CKD of moderate severity. RTL was measured by qPCR in 4955 out of 5217 GCKD patients at baseline. ResultsRTL was distributed in the cohort with a mean ± SD of 0.95 ± 0.19. CVD was present in 1266 patients. Each decrease of RTL by 0.1 unit was associated with a higher probability for prevalent CVD: OR = 1.06, 95% CI 1.02–1.11, p = 0.007 (adjusted for age, sex, eGFR, BMI, ln-CRP, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, and lipids). Similar findings were observed for history of specific CVD entities, such as coronary artery disease (OR = 1.05, p = 0.025), myocardial infarction (OR = 1.08, p = 0.013) and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (OR = 1.06, p = 0.032). The strongest associations were found for interventions at the carotid arteries (OR = 1.25, p = 0.001) as well as aortic aneurysms (OR = 1.22, p = 0.001). ConclusionsIn the presence of CKD there is a significant association between shorter RTL and CVD manifestations. RTL appears to be a marker reflecting changes in homeostasis associated with CKD that may contribute to the excess CVD risk.

Association of relative telomere length with progression of chronic kidney disease in two cohorts: effect modification by smoking and diabetes.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a highly progressive disease. We studied the association between relative telomere length (RTL) and CKD progression and tested whether this association is modified by smoking and diabetes mellitus. RTL was measured by qPCR in two prospective cohort studies, the MMKD-Study (n = 166) and the CRISIS-Study (n = 889) with a median follow-up of 4.5 and 2.8 years, respectively. Progression was defined as doubling of baseline serum creatinine (MMKD-Study) and/or end stage renal disease (both studies). 59 and 105 of the patients from MMKD and CRISIS experienced a progression of CKD. Mean standardized pooled RTL was 0.74 ± 0.29. In the meta-analysis shorter RTL at baseline showed a borderline association with CKD progression (HR = 1.07 [95%CI 1.00–1.15]; p = 0.06). We observed an effect modification of RTL and CKD progression by smoking and diabetes (p-values of interaction p = 0.02 and p = 0.09, respectively). Each 0.1 unit shorter RTL was significantly associated with an increased hazard for CKD progression in active-smokers by 44% (HR = 1.44 [1.16–1.81]; p = 0.001) and in patients with diabetes mellitus by 16% (HR = 1.16 [1.01–1.34]; p = 0.03). Estimates were adjusted for baseline age, sex, proteinuria and GFR. This study in two independent cohorts reinforces that RTL is a marker and potentially a pathogenetic factor for CKD progression.

Leukocyte telomere length: a novel biomarker to predict the prognosis of glioma patients.

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that leukocyte telomere length is associated with the developing risk of various malignancies, including glioma. However, its prognostic value in glioma patients has never been investigated. Relative telomere length (RTL) of peripheral blood leukocytes from 301 glioma patients were examined using a real-time PCR-based method. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to assess the association of RTL with clinical outcomes of patients. To explore the potential mechanism, the immune phenotype of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and concentrations of several cytokines from another 20 glioma patients were detected by flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. The relationship between RTL and immunological characteristics of PBMCs were further analyzed. Patients with short RTL showed both poorer overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) than those with long RTL. Multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that RTL was an independent prognostic factor for both OS and PFS in glioma patients. Moreover, the effects of RTL on the prognosis of patients exhibited a dose-dependent manner. Stratified analysis showed that the prognostic value of RTL was not affected by host characteristics except for age. In addition, flow cytometry and ELISA analyses indicated that there was no significant association between RTL and frequency of different immune cell subsets or plasma cytokine concentrations. Our study for the first time demonstrates that leukocyte RTL is an independent prognostic marker for glioma patients. The potential mechanism needs further investigation.

Abstract 5102: Telomeres and survival in stage III colon cancers: Findings from NCCTG N0147 (Alliance) study

Abstract Introduction: Peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) telomere length is associated with colon cancer (CC) risk, but the relationship of PBL telomere length to survival in CC patients receiving chemotherapy is unknown. Methods: We measured relative telomere length (RTL) by qPCR of PBL DNA from 2,748 cases (53% male, 85% white, median age 58 yrs) in the North American Phase III Intergroup Trial N0147 that compared disease-free survival (DFS) among completely resected Stage III CC treated with mFOLFOX6 +/- cetuximab. Tumor markers were assessed, and 12% were BRAF mutant; 35% Kras mutant, and 12% deficient mismatch repair (dMMR). Linear and non-linear prognostic associations of PBL RTL to the primary endpoint of DFS were assessed by Cox models. Optimal categories of RTL were developed using cumulative martingale residual plots, designated from shortest to longest RTL (Table 1). Results: Never smokers had longer PBL RTL (p = 0.0006) than past or current smokers. Those with diabetes mellitus (DM) had longer PBL RTL than those without DM (p = 0.0165). PBL RTL was not associated with any tumor markers (MMR status; p = 0.7174; BRAF mutant vs wild-type (wt); p =0.4039; Kras mutant vs wt; p= 0.1149). PBL RTL was significantly associated with DFS in a non-linear form (p = 0.0389). Cases in the longer RTL category had more favorable DFS than those with shorter or longest RTL, (Table), which remained after adjusting for age, sex , T/N stage, grade, tumor markers, and treatment (p = 0.0230). We observed no significant interaction (p = 0.1490) between RTL categories and treatment. Conclusion: We observed a non-linear association between RTL and DFS in stage III CC, suggesting that an optimal range telomere length can influence tumor behavior in CC patients. Future studies of telomere maintenance mechanisms may help to explain the association of RTL with improved DFS. RTL is associated with smoking and DM in CC cases but further studies are needed to determine if either tobacco use or DM affect survival from CC by modulating PBL telomere length. Citation Format: Nivedita Basu, Ruth A. Johnson, Qian Shi, Garth D. Nelson, Julie M. Cunningham, Richard M. Goldberg, Frank A. Sinicrope, Daniel J. Sargent, Steven R. Alberts, Gloria M. Petersen, Stephen N. Thibodeau, Halcyon G. Skinner, Kristin Litzelman, Songwon Seo, Russell J. Vanderboom, Ronald E. Gangnon, Corinne D. Engelman, David N. Rider, Lisa A. Boardman. Telomeres and survival in stage III colon cancers: Findings from NCCTG N0147 (Alliance) study. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 5102. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-5102

The association of relative telomere length with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease: Results from the CAVASIC study

Background and objectivesShort telomere length has been described to be associated with biological aging including atherosclerosis phenotypes. However, information in patients with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is sparse. We therefore aimed to investigate whether inter-individual differences in relative telomere length (RTL) are associated with symptomatic PAD. DesignWe measured RTL by a quantitative PCR method in the CAVASIC Study, a cohort of 241 male Caucasian patients diagnosed with intermittent claudication and 249 age- and diabetes-matched controls. ResultsWe observed significantly shorter mean RTL in patients than in controls (1.24 ± 0.19 vs. 1.32 ± 0.23, p < 0.001). Each shortening of RTL by one standard deviation significantly increased the odds for PAD by 44%: age-adjusted OR = 1.44 (95%CI 1.19–1.75, p < 0.001). This association remained significant after additional adjustment for log-C-reactive protein, glomerular filtration rate, HDL cholesterol, current smoking and log N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). Excluding patients with prevalent cardiovascular disease revealed very similar results. When we compared the model fit of the various adjustment models including cardiac risk factors and/or NT-proBNP the addition of RTL significantly improved discrimination between patients and controls. ConclusionThis study in a male cohort of patients with intermittent claudication and age- and diabetes-matched controls indicates a significant association of shorter relative telomere length with PAD. Our results reinforce RTL as a marker for PAD that reflects the influence of genetic and environmental risk factors. Moreover, the association remains significant after excluding patients and controls free from prevalent cardiovascular disease.

Abstract 4462: Relative telomere length in circulating serum DNA as a novel non-invasive biomarker in hepatocarcinogenesis

Abstract Background: Abnormal telomere maintenance has been significantly implicated in tumor development and progression. Telomere length has recently emerged as a promising predictor for the risk of various cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Nonetheless, no studies have been reported on measuring telomere length in circulating cell-free DNA samples as a non-invasive biomarker of cancer risk. Method: In this nested case-control study, we used real-time quantitative PCR to determine the relative telomere length (RTL) in serum DNA samples from 140 hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC (HBV-HCC) cases and 280 frequency-matched cancer-free HBV controls, and evaluated the associations between RTL and HBV-HCC risk, as well as RTL and HBV-cirrhosis risk in a sub-population of 100 HBV-cirrhosis cases and 100 matched HBV controls. Results: We found that HBV-HCC cases had a significantly longer RTL (median, 0.31; range, 0.02-2.31) versus HBV controls (median, 0.20; range, 0.01-1.60) (P=0.003). Using the median RTL value in controls as the cutoff point, individuals with longer RTLs exhibited a significantly increased risk of HCC compared to those with short RTLs in an univariate logistic regression analysis (odds ratio [OR]=1.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-2.33, P=0.038). However, the strength of this association attenuated after multivariate adjustment (OR=1.40, 95% CI 0.90-2.19, P=0.132). In a quartile analysis, a significant dose-response relationship was noted in the univariate analysis (P trend=0.017) which was attenuated in the multivariate analysis (P trend=0.079). Further analyses revealed that the significant association between serum RTL and HCC risk was only evident in non-cirrhotic (OR=3.54, 95% CI 1.58-7.93 P=0.002), but not in cirrhotic (OR=0.95, 95% CI 0.55-1.64, P=0.860) HBV patients. Additionally, a significant difference (P=0.004) of RTL distribution was observed between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic HBV controls. We further analyzed the association of RTL with liver cirrhosis risk. Using patients with short RTL as reference, we found long RTL conferred a significantly increased risk of HBV-related cirrhosis in univariate and multivariate analyses with unadjusted OR of 2.70 (95% CI 1.50-4.88, P=0.001) and 2.73 (95% CI 1.51-4.93, P=0.001), respectively. Further tertile and quartile analysis showed a significant dose-response relationship (P trend &amp;lt;0.001 for both) in both univariate and multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Collectively, our data suggested that RTL in circulating cell-free serum DNA could potentially be used as a novel non-invasive biomarker for non-cirrhotic HBV-HCC and HBV-related cirrhosis. Prospective cohort studies are warranted to further validate this finding and assess its clinical significance in HCC prevention. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4462. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4462

Mean telomere length and risk of incident venous thromboembolism: A prospective, nested case–control approach

Background Recent studies have shown telomere-length shortening as a risk predictor for cardiovascular disease. However, to date, no prospective data are available on its potential involvement in venous thromboembolism (VTE). Methods Using leukocyte DNA samples collected at baseline in a prospective cohort of 14,916 initially healthy American men, we examined the relationship of mean telomere repeat copy number to single gene copy number ( T/ S ratio), using a modified quantitative polymerase chain reaction protocol, amongst 108 White males who subsequently developed a first ever VTE event and amongst an equal number of age- and smoking-matched White males who remained free of vascular events during follow-up (controls). Results An inverse correlation between T/ S ratios and age was observed in our controls ( p = 0.04). However, the T/ S ratios were similar between cases and controls ( p = 0.31). Furthermore, in a multi-variable adjusted analysis, we found no evidence for an association of the observed T/ S ratios with VTE risk (odds ratio = 1.20; 95%CI = 0.58–2.52; p = 0.62). Conclusions The present investigation found no evidence for an association of relative telomere length with risk of incident VTE.