Figure 2.

Premature telomere erosion in CD4 cells of patients with RA. TRF length analysis was performed by using purified peripheral CD4 T cells of 42 control donors (Upper) and 51 RA patients (Lower). In control donors, TRF progressively shortened with age (r² = 0.56, P = 0.0001), with an accelerated loss between the ages of 40 and 65 yr. In RA patients, TRF length did not correlate with age (r² = 0.09, P = 0.5). Patients <40 yr already had nearly reached the plateau of aged control individuals (>65 yr). Regression lines for normals and patients differed significantly (P = 0.005).