Abstract
Haemopoietic stem cells (HSC) undergo a process of self renewal to constantly maintain blood cell turnover. However, it has become apparent that adult HSC lose their self-renewal ability with age. Telomere shortening in peripheral blood leukocytes has been seen to occur with age and it has been associated with loss of HSC proliferative capacity and cellular ageing. In contrast foetal HSC are known to have greater proliferative capacity than post-natal stem cells. However it is unknown whether they undergo a similar process of telomere shortening. In this study we show a more accentuated rate of telomere loss in leukocytes from pre term infants compared to human foetuses of comparable age followed longitudinally for 8–12 weeks in a longitudinal study. Our results point to a difference in HSC behaviour between foetal and early postnatal life which is independent of age but may be influenced by events at birth itself.
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Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to Bruno Peault, Thomas Von Zglinicki and Ian Thornley for critical reading of the manuscript and helpful discussion. We would like to thank Caroline Wellings, Sue Callan and Joan Kelly for their assistance in patient recruitment to the study and Melissa Baxter, for expert technical assistance with the Southern blotting technique. This study was supported by Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Endowment Fund. D.K.H. was a Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund Research Fellow.
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10522_2008_9194_MOESM1_ESM.ppt
Analysis of mTRF changes of the same sample run in 3 series of 4–5 adjacent lanes on two different gels to determine the mTRF variability associated with the technique (PPT 31 kb)
10522_2008_9194_MOESM2_ESM.ppt
Representative examples of telomere gels for (A) an alloimmunised foetus. mTRF (kb) for each sample is indicated at the top of each lane. (B) a gel where the same sample was run to assess the variability of the technique (PPT 278 kb)
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Holmes, D.K., Bellantuono, I., Walkinshaw, S.A. et al. Telomere length dynamics differ in foetal and early post-natal human leukocytes in a longitudinal study. Biogerontology 10, 279–284 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-008-9194-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-008-9194-y