Association between Telomere Length and Risk of Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
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Abstract
Ischemic stroke remains a leading contributor to death and long-term disability worldwide. Because telomere shortening reflects biological aging and cumulative cellular stress, telomere length has been proposed as a marker that might be related to stroke susceptibility. This study was undertaken to synthesize the available evidence on the relationship between telomere length and ischemic stroke risk. PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL were searched for eligible studies, and seven studies met the inclusion criteria. These comprised one cohort study, one case-control study, and five Mendelian randomization studies. In pooled analyses, telomere length showed no significant association with ischemic stroke overall (OR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.92-1.07; p = 0.90), and the results remained non-significant in analyses by ischemic stroke subtype. No significant differences were identified between study-design subgroups. Overall, the current evidence does not support a causal association between telomere length and ischemic stroke. Given the small evidence base and the variation across prior studies, additional well-designed investigations are still needed to clarify whether telomere biology has any meaningful role in stroke development.
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