Akiyama M, Hoshi Y, Sakurai S, Yamada H, Yamada O, Mizoguchi H
Department of Pediatrics, Institute of DNA Medicine, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Bone Marrow Transplant. 1998 Jan;21(2):167-71. doi: 10.1038/sj.bmt.1701060.
Telomeres are responsible for keeping the stability not only of chromosomes but also of genes. To investigate the effect of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) on telomeres, we studied telomere length in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 31 children who received HSCT. In the auto-HSCT groups telomere length ranged from 8.6 to 12.0 kb and in the allo-HSCT groups from 8.4 to 12.0 kb. Comparison of the telomere length between before and after auto-HSCT showed shorting up to 1.0 kb. Moreover, comparison between donors and recipients in allo-HSCT revealed that telomeres of recipients were up to 1.0 kb shorter than those of the donors. Patients who received allo-HSCT from donors older than 18 years had significantly shorter telomeres than those transplanted from donors under 18 years old (P < 0.05), indicating that donor age is an important factor for recipient's telomere length. These findings suggest that the effects which might be induced by shortening of telomeres in recipients are within the biologically tolerable range. However, if hematopoietic stem cells from elderly donors are transplanted into younger patients, the telomere length may become too short for acceptable lifetime risks of genetic instability in the recipient.
端粒不仅负责维持染色体的稳定性，还负责维持基因的稳定性。为了研究造血干细胞移植（HSCT）对端粒的影响，我们研究了31名接受HSCT的儿童外周血单个核细胞中的端粒长度。在自体HSCT组中，端粒长度在8.6至12.0 kb之间，在异基因HSCT组中，端粒长度在8.4至12.0 kb之间。自体HSCT前后端粒长度的比较显示缩短了1.0 kb。此外，异基因HSCT中供体与受体之间的比较显示，受体的端粒比供体的端粒短1.0 kb。接受18岁以上供体异基因HSCT的患者的端粒明显短于接受18岁以下供体移植的患者（P < 0.05），这表明供体年龄是受体端粒长度的一个重要因素。这些发现表明，受体端粒缩短可能引起的影响在生物学可耐受范围内。然而，如果将老年供体的造血干细胞移植给年轻患者，端粒长度可能会变得过短，从而使受体面临遗传不稳定的可接受终身风险。
