26 February 2026
An international team of researchers from China, Singapore and Australia have explored the effect of telomere length on the incidence and severity of cataracts.
Writing in Eye and Vision, the scientists highlighted that longer leukocyte telomere length is associated with a reduced risk and severity of age-related cataracts.
They added that this finding suggests there are shared biological pathways between telomere attrition and lens ageing.
“This supports the lens as a unique window for studying systemic ageing,” the researchers observed.
The study involved examining data from 22,932 healthy individuals with a mean age of 56.27 years from the UK Biobank, alongside a hospital-based cohort of 53 cataract patients with a mean age of 71.74 in China.
The authors noted that oxidative stress – which is implicated in both the development of cataracts and telomere attrition – may explain the association revealed within the study.
The researchers added that modifiable factors that reduce oxidative burden may both preserve telomere length and delay cataract formation.
“These findings support the lens as a sentinel tissue for systemic ageing,” they noted.
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