Telomere length changes in patients with aplastic anaemia
Je-Jung Lee, Hoon Kook, Ik-Joo Chung, Jeung-A Na,
Moo-Rim Park, Tai-Ju Hwang, Jae-Yong Kwak,
Sang-Kyun Sohn,
Hyeoung-Joon Kim,
Jeung-A Na
Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Chonnam National University Medical School, Kwangju,
Search for more papers by this authorJae-Yong Kwak
Department of Internal Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Chonju, and
Search for more papers by this authorSang-Kyun Sohn
Department of Internal Medicine, Kyungpook National University, College of Medicine, Taegu, Korea
Search for more papers by this authorJe-Jung Lee, Hoon Kook, Ik-Joo Chung, Jeung-A Na,
Moo-Rim Park, Tai-Ju Hwang, Jae-Yong Kwak,
Sang-Kyun Sohn,
Hyeoung-Joon Kim,
Jeung-A Na
Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Chonnam National University Medical School, Kwangju,
Search for more papers by this authorJae-Yong Kwak
Department of Internal Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Chonju, and
Search for more papers by this authorSang-Kyun Sohn
Department of Internal Medicine, Kyungpook National University, College of Medicine, Taegu, Korea
Search for more papers by this author: Hoon Kook, M.D., Department of Paediatrics, Chonnam National University Medical School, 8 Hak-Dong, Dong-Ku, Kwangju 501-757, South Korea. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
To investigate telomere changes in patients with aplastic anaemia (AA) and clinical factors influencing the telomere dynamics, telomere length (TL) was measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells using Southern blot analysis of 42 patients with AA and 39 healthy normal controls. Nineteen patients received supportive treatment only, while the remaining 23 patients received immunosuppressive therapy with anti-thymocyte globulin or anti-lymphocyte globulin ± cyclosporin A. In AA patients, TL was on average 1·41 kb shorter than that of age-matched normal controls (P < 0·001). In patients treated with immunosuppression, the mean TL of non-responders was significantly shorter than that of age-matched normal controls (P < 0·001), while no difference in TL was detected in responders compared with controls. Positive correlation was observed between the extent of telomere shortening, the severity of neutropenia (P = 0·05) and the degree of mean corpuscular volume elevation (P = 0·005) at the time of the study. However, there was no correlation with time elapsed since diagnosis (P = 0·214). These findings suggest that haematopoietic stem cells in patients with AA rapidly lose TL at the onset of the disease. The TL shortening may reflect the severity of impairment of haematopoiesis.
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