Genetically determined telomere length and its association with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and interstitial lung disease in biobank Japan: A Mendelian randomization study.

Importance: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) have been linked to shorter telomere length (TL). While understanding this association has critical clinical implications for respiratory diseases, previous studies exploring these associations were conducted in European populations. The present study aims to investigate this relationship in an Asian population.

Objective: To examine the causal relationship between leukocyte TL and COPD and ILD in an Asian population.

Design: Setting, and Participants: We used a genome-wide association study summary statistics-based two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) design to investigate the association between leukocyte TL, genetically predicted by nine single-nucleotide polymorphisms and the risk of COPD and ILD. Participants were Japanese individuals enrolled in the Biobank Japan Project, including 3315 COPD patients and 806 ILD patients.

Exposure: Leukocyte TL was genetically predicted by nine single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

Results: The inverse-variance weighted estimates showed a significant inverse association between leukocyte TL and COPD (odds ratio [OR] = 0.78; 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 0.64, 0.95; P = 0.01) and ILD (OR = 0.29; 95 % CI: 0.14, 0.61; P = 0.001), respectively. All sensitivity analyses yielded consistent results. The MR-Egger regression intercept test showed no evidence of horizontal pleiotropy (P: COPD, 0.56; ILD: 0.70).

Conclusion: and Relevance: Our findings suggest that leukocyte telomere shortening may causally increase the risk of COPD and ILD. These results highlight the potential importance of TL for these respiratory diseases.