Telomeres are short DNA repeats on the ends of mammalian chromosomes, which can undergo incomplete replication leading to gradual shortening with each cell cycle. Age and oxidative stress are contributors to telomere shortening; thus, telomere length may be a composite measure of biologic aging, and a potential predictor of health status in older adults. We evaluated whether relative telomere l...

We identified the telomere length at different hematological phases in 16 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), showing disease evolution with a conventional Southern blot hybridization using the (TTAGGG)4 probe. The MDS patients studied were classified into three groups according to the pattern of telomere length reduction. The first group had telomere shortening at the time of diseas...

BACKGROUND Telomeres are DNA repeat sequences necessary for DNA replication which shorten at cell division at a rate directly related to levels of oxidative stress. Critical telomere shortening predisposes to cell senescence and to epithelial malignancies. Type 2 diabetes is characterised by increased oxidative DNA damage, telomere attrition, and an increased risk of colonic malignancy. We hypo...

PURPOSE Telomeres play a key role in the maintenance of chromosome integrity and stability, and telomere shortening is involved in initiation and progression of malignancies. The aim of this study was to determine whether telomere length is associated with the colorectal carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 148 colorectal cancer (CRC) samples and corresponding adjacent non-cancerous tis...

BACKGROUND Telomere defects are thought to play a role in cardiomyopathies, but the specific cell type affected by the disease in human hearts is not yet identified. The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the cell type specificity of telomere shortening in patients with heart failure in relation to their cardiac disease, age, and sex. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied cardiac tissu...

To study the effect of continued telomere shortening on chromosome stability, we have analyzed the telomere length of two individual chromosomes (chromosomes 2 and 11) in fibroblasts derived from wild-type mice and from mice lacking the mouse telomerase RNA (mTER) gene using quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization. Telomere length at both chromosomes decreased with increasing generation...

Telomere length has a biological link to cancer, with excessive telomere shortening leading to genetic instability and resultant malignant transformation. Telomere length is heritable and genetic variants determining telomere length have been identified. Telomere biology has been implicated in the development of hematological malignancies (HMs), therefore, closer examination of telomere length ...

Obesity and inactivity have been associated with advanced-stage prostate cancer, and poor prostate cancer outcomes, though the underlying mechanism(s) is unknown. To determine whether telomere shortening, which has been associated with lethal prostate cancer, may be a potential underlying mechanism, we prospectively evaluated the association between measures of adiposity, physical activity, and...

PURPOSE Telomeres help maintain chromosomal integrity. Dysfunctional telomeres can cause genetic instability in vitro and an increased cancer incidence in telomerase knock out mouse models. We recently reported that telomere shortening was a prevalent alteration in human prostate, pancreas, and breast cancer precursor lesions. In the present study, we address whether the previous findings are b...

Telomeres, the protective ends of linear chromosomes, shorten throughout an individual's lifetime. Telomere shortening is proposed to be a primary molecular cause of aging. Short telomeres block the proliferative capacity of stem cells, affecting their potential to regenerate tissues, and trigger the development of age-associated diseases. Mutations in telomere maintenance genes are associated ...