Figure 1.

Telomere length and anti-influenza virus titers. A, Telomere length of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 2 representative subjects in the short and long telomere groups. B, Percentage of subjects who exhibited a different type of antibody response in the short and long telomere groups. The responder grouping is described in “Participants, Materials, and Methods” section; 33% of subjects in the short versus 54% in the long telomere group were categorized as robust responders. C, B-cell telomere length of robust responders (mean age, 83.4 years) and poor responders (mean age, 85.3 years). The mean (standard error of the mean) telomere length of B cells from robust responders was 7.9 (0.3) kb for robust responders (n = 16) and 7.1 (0.1) kb for poor responders (n = 12). *P < .05. Abbreviation: MW, DNA molecular weight.