Telomere Length and Hearing Loss: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization

Yun Liu, Shuangyan Liu, Jiarui Xin, Peiyi Qian, Shuli Guo, Xiaojun Xu, Dahui Wang and Lei Yang
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Yun Liu: School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310000, China
Shuangyan Liu: School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Jiarui Xin: School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310000, China
Peiyi Qian: School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310000, China
Shuli Guo: School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310000, China
Xiaojun Xu: School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310000, China
Dahui Wang: School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310000, China
Lei Yang: School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310000, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-11

Abstract: Background: Observational studies have suggested that there may be an association between telomere length (TL) and hearing loss (HL). However, inferring causality from observational studies is subject to residual confounding effects, reverse causation, and bias. This study adopted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to evaluate the causal relationship between TL and increased risk of HL. Methods: A total of 16 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with TL were identified from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis of 78,592 European participants and applied to our modeling as instrumental variables. Summary-level data for hearing loss (HL), age-related hearing loss (ARHL), and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) were obtained from the recent largest available GWAS and five MR analyses were used to investigate the potential causal association of genetically predicted TL with increased risk for HL, including the inverse-variance-weighted (IVW), weighted median, MR-Egger regression, simple mode, and weighted mode. In addition, sensitivity analysis, pleiotropy, and heterogeneity tests were also used to evaluate the robustness of our findings. Results: There was no causal association between genetically predicted TL and HL or its subtypes (by the IVW method, HL: odds ratio (OR) = 1.216, p = 0.382; ARHL: OR = 0.934, p = 0.928; NIHL: OR = 1.003, p = 0.776). Although heterogenous sites rs2736176, rs3219104, rs8105767, and rs2302588 were excluded for NIHL, the second MR analysis was consistent with the first analysis (OR = 1.003, p = 0.572). Conclusion: There was no clear causal relationship between shorter TLs and increased risk of HL or its subtypes in this dataset.

Keywords: Mendelian randomization; telomere length; hearing loss; causal effect; age-related hearing loss; noise-induced hearing loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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