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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Genet. 2012 Sep 11;13(10):693–704. doi: 10.1038/nrg3246

Figure 4. Short telomeres cause haematopoietic stem cell failure.

Figure 4

a | Simplified schema of the haematopoiesis hierarchy with intact telomere length (left panel) and in the presence of telomere dysfunction (right panel). Telomere dysfunction causes both quantitative and qualitative defects in haematopoietic stem cells, which cause a decrease in mature blood forms. Defects in lymphopoiesis also cause immune defects. b | Histopathology of normal bone marrow biopsy shows intact marrow cellularity and haematopoietic cellular elements (left panel). In the right panel, a photomicrograph of a bone marrow biopsy from an individual with aplastic anaemia shows acellular marrow and replacement of the marrow parenchyma by fat. Panel b reproduced, with permission, from Ref. 13 © (2009) Annual Reviews.