Significantly shorter telomeres in T-cells of patients with ZAP-70+/CD38+ chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
In contrast to other B-cell neoplasias, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is characterized by increased non-leukaemic T-cells. In order to assess their replicative history, telomere length was analyzed in subsets of leucocytes from CLL patients. Naive and memory T-cells from ZAP-70(+)/CD38(+) patients exhibited significantly shorter average telomere lengths than ZAP-70(-)/CD38(-) patients. Compared to the age-related percentiles of telomere length values from healthy individuals practically all values of the naive and memory T-cells from the ZAP-70(+)/CD38(+) CLL patients fell below the 50th percentile. This indicated an extensive expansion and a role for T-cells in ZAP-70(+)/CD38(+) CLL patients.
Röth
Alexander
A
Department of Haematology, University Hospital, Essen, Germany. alexander.roeth@uni-due.de
de Beer
Dirk
D
Nückel
Holger
H
Sellmann
Ludger
L
Dührsen
Ulrich
U
Dürig
Jan
J
Baerlocher
Gabriela M
GM