A large Chinese study found shorter leucocyte telomere length (LTL) was associated with increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in females. 

Writing in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, researchers from The Chinese University of Hong Kong said they analysed the data of 332,123 UK Biobank participants without AMD at baseline. During a median follow-up of 13.6 years, 6,754 individuals (2.03%) developed AMD, they said.  

Across the full cohort, shorter LTL was not significantly associated with increased AMD risk (HR=1.042, 95% CI 0.992–1.094; p=0.10), but in women it was associated with higher risk of AMD (HR = 1.093, 95% CI 1.025–1.166; p=0.007). Additionally, shorter LTLs in female participants correlated with thinner photoreceptor segments, both at baseline (–0.141µm) and at repeat imaging (–0.345µm). 

Authors concluded that LTL may act as a sex-specific biomarker for AMD development.