Corneal Nerve Fiber Morphology and Biological Age in Healthy Adults.
Higher biological age is associated with lower corneal nerve fiber density.
Corneal Nerve Fiber Morphology and Biological Age in Healthy Adults.
Corneal confocal microscopy (confocal microscopy) quantifies subbasal corneal nerve fibers noninvasively and may inform peripheral neuroaging.
We aimed to assess corneal nerve morphology in clinically healthy adults and determine whether confocal microscopy-derived parameters are associated with biological age (PhenoAge) beyond chronological age.
Eighty-four healthy volunteers (22-89 years) underwent confocal microscopy.
each extra year of biological aging means fewer corneal nerve fibers detected on eye scan
Mean chronological age was 50.8 ± 15.5 years, and mean PhenoAge was 47.1 ± 16.3 years.
No systematic inter-eye differences were detected (all p > 0.05).
Across analyses, older age and higher PhenoAge were associated with lower main corneal nerve fiber measures, most consistently for main-fiber density.
Participant-level sensitivity analysis (mean of both eyes) confirmed inverse associations of both chronological age and PhenoAge with main-fiber length and density (all p ≤ 0.035).
Confocal microscopy-derived corneal nerve morphology demonstrates aging-related patterns in clinically healthy adults.
The association between PhenoAge and main-fiber density may suggest a systemic biological aging component and warrants longitudinal validation.