Telomere attrition has been linked to accelerate vascular ageing and seems to predispose for vascular disease. Our aim was to study the telomere length dynamics over time and in subsets of leukocytes from 15 patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). The mean telomere length in subsets of leukocytes of patients with PAD was in the normal range of age-related telomere length values from he...

The enzyme telomerase is active in germ cells and early embryonic development and is crucial for the maintenance of telomere length. Whereas the different length of telomeres in germ cells and somatic cells is well documented, information on telomere length regulation during embryogenesis is lacking. In this study, we demonstrate a telomere elongation program at the transition from morula to bl...

The establishment of a specific nucleoprotein structure, the telomere, is required to ensure the protection of chromosome ends from being recognized as DNA damage sites. Telomere shortening below a critical length triggers a DNA damage response that leads to replicative senescence. In normal human somatic cells, characterized by telomere shortening with each cell division, telomere uncapping is...

Telomere length homeostasis is a prerequisite for the generation and growth of cancer. In >85% cancer cells, telomere length is maintained by telomerase that add telomere repeats to the end of telomere DNA. Because the G-rich strand of telomere DNA can fold into G-quadruplex that inhibits telomerase activity, stabilizing telomere quadruplex by small molecules is emerging as a potential therapeu...

Cross-sectional studies have associated short telomere length with smoking, body weight, physical activity, and possibly alcohol intake; however, whether these associations are due to confounding is unknown. We tested these hypotheses in 4,576 individuals from the general population cross-sectionally, and with repeat measurement of relative telomere length 10 years apart. We also tested whether...

BACKGROUND Telomeres containing noncoding DNA repeats at the end of the chromosomes are essential for chromosomal stability and are implicated in regulating the replication and senescence of cells. The gradual loss of telomere repeats in cells has been linked to aging and tumor development and methods to measure telomere length are of increasing interest. At least three methods for measuring th...

Abstract Chaenomeles speciosa (2n = 34), a medicinal and edible plant in the Rosaceae, is commonly used traditional Chinese medicine. To date, lack of genomic sequence genetic studies has impeded efforts to improve its value. Herein, we report use an integrative approach involving PacBio HiFi (third-generation) sequencing Hi-C scaffolding assemble high-quality telomere-to-telomere genome C. spe...

BACKGROUND Telomeres are specialized chromatin structures essential for maintenance of chromosomal integrity and stability. Abnormal alteration of telomere length has been linked to several cancers; however, epidemiologic evidence about the association of telomere length with colorectal cancer risk has been conflicting. METHODS We conducted a nested case-control study to evaluate the associat...

BACKGROUND Telomere dysfunction is involved in the development of breast cancer and very short telomeres are frequent genetic alterations in breast tumors. However, the influence of telomere lengths of specific chromosomal arms on the breast cancer risk is unknown. METHODS We conducted a case-control study of breast cancer to examine the associations of the telomere length on chromosome 9 sho...

Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and regulate the replicative life span of human somatic cells. Telomere function is lost upon critical shortening and a p53-dependent checkpoint that detects altered telomere states at the G1/S transition was proposed to act as a regulator of the telomere damage response. We show that telomerase-negative human fibroblasts spend more time in G2 phase as they...