Association of Genetic Polymorphisms of TERT with Telomere Length in Coke Oven Emissions-Exposed Workers

We explored the association between variations in the telomere maintenance genes and change in telomere length (TL) in workers. The TL of peripheral blood leukocytes from 544 coke oven workers and 238 controls were detected using the Real-time PCR method. Variations in four genes were then detected using the PCR based restriction fragment length polymorphism. The effects of environmental and genetic factors on TL were subsequently analyzed through covariance analysis and a generalized linear model .The TL of subjects with GG genotypes were longer than those with AG genotype in the <i>TERT</i> rs2736098 locus amongst the controls (<i>P</i> = .032). The combined effect of COEs exposure and AG+AA genotypes had a significant effect on TL (<i>P</i> &lt; .001). The interaction between the COEs exposure factor and the rs2736098AG+AA genotypes had a significant effect on the TL (<i>P</i> &lt; .05). The TL in coke oven workers is associated with the interactions between <i>TERT</i> rs2736098 AG+AA and COEs exposure.