Purpose This study aimed to explore the effects of genetic polymorphisms in metabolic enzymes on relative telomere length changes and explore the mechanism of canceration induced by omethoate. Materials and Methods 180 long-term omethoate-exposed workers and 115 healthy controls were recruited. Real-time PCR method was applied to determine the relative telomere length in peripheral blood leuk...

Telomere length is regulated around an equilibrium set point. Telomeres shorten during replication and are lengthened by telomerase. Disruption of the length equilibrium leads to disease; thus, it is important to understand the mechanisms that regulate length at the molecular level. The prevailing protein-counting model for regulating telomerase access to elongate the telomere does not explain ...

BACKGROUND Telomere length is considered as a biomarker of aging, stress, cancer. It has been associated with many chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Although, telomere shortening due to ionizing radiation has been reported in vitro, no in vivo data is available on natural background radiation and its effect on telomere length. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The present inves...

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that telomeres in somatic cells are not randomly distributed at the end of the chromosomes. We hypothesize that these chromosome arm specific differences in telomere length (the telomere length pattern) may be actively maintained. In this study we investigate the existence and maintenance of the telomere length pattern in stem cells. For this aim w...

Telomeres are repetitive non coding DNA sequences located at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes, which maintain the integrity of the genome by hiding the chromosome ends from being recognised as double stranded breaks. Telomeres are emerging as biomarkers for ageing and survival, and are susceptible to reflect different individual life history trajectories. In particular, the telomere length wit...

Telomerase activity is readily detectable in extracts from human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, but appears unable to maintain telomere length with proliferation in vitro and with age in vivo. We performed a detailed study of the telomere length by flow FISH analysis in leukocytes from 835 healthy individuals and 60 individuals with reduced telomerase activity. Healthy individuals sho...

Telomere length variation has been associated with increased risk of several types of tumors, and telomere shortening, with genetic anticipation in a number of genetic diseases including hereditary cancer syndromes. No conclusive studies have been performed for Lynch syndrome, a hereditary colorectal cancer syndrome caused by germline mutations in the DNA mismatch repair genes. Here we evaluate...

Background—Telomere shortening has been proposed as a marker of biological aging. Whether leukocyte telomere length is associated with mortality among patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) is unknown. Methods and Results—We measured leukocyte telomere length in 780 patients with stable CAD in a prospective cohort study. Participants were categorized by quartiles of telomere length....

Telomere length in human cells is controlled by a homeostasis mechanism that involves telomerase and the negative regulator of telomere length, TRF1 (TTAGGG repeat binding factor 1). Here we report that TRF2, a TRF1-related protein previously implicated in protection of chromosome ends, is a second negative regulator of telomere length. Overexpression of TRF2 results in the progressive shorteni...

BACKGROUND telomere attrition has been associated with an increased risk of different age-related diseases and is widely accepted as a marker of cellular ageing. On the other hand, it is well known that cognitive function declines with age. The telomere length may therefore act as a marker for the pathway associated with cognitive function. METHODS we examined telomere length and cognitive fu...