Association of leukocyte telomere length with chronic kidney disease in East Asians with type 2 diabetes: a Mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common among people with type 2 diabetes (T2D), and increases the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular diseases. Shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is associated with CKD in patients with T2D. We previously reported single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with LTL in an Asian population. In this study, we elucidated the association of these SNPs with CKD in patients with T2D using the Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. METHODS: The cross-sectional association of 16 LTL SNPs with CKD, defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate of <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2), was assessed among 4768 (1628 cases and 3140 controls) participants in the Singapore Study of Macro-angiopathy and Micro-vascular Reactivity in T2D and Diabetic Nephropathy cohorts. MR analysis was performed using the random-effect inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method, the weighted median, MR-Egger and Radial MR adjusted for age and sex-stratified by cohorts and ethnicity (Chinese and Malays), then meta-analyzed. RESULTS: Genetically determined shorter LTL was associated with increased risk of CKD in patients with T2D (meta-IVW adjusted odds ratio = 1.51, 95% confidence interval 1.12–2.12, P = 0.007, P(het) = 0.547). Similar results were obtained following sensitivity analysis. MR-Egger analysis (intercept) suggested no evidence of horizontal pleiotropy (β = 0.010, P = 0.751). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that genetically determined LTL is associated with CKD in patients with T2D. Further studies are warranted to elucidate the causal role of telomere length in CKD progression.