Figure 4.

Telomere dysfunction in cancer patients and those with genetic syndromes. (A) Telomere length of healthy donors is age-dependent. The regression line indicates telomere shortening with age in healthy donors (79 pb per year; Y = 12.1−0.79X; R² = 0.29). In cancer patients and those with genetic disorders, there is no significant correlation between telomere length and age. High individual variation is observed in telomere length of healthy donors, cancer patients, and genetic disorder patients. (B) Cancer patients and those with genetic syndromes show significantly shorter telomeres than healthy donors. (C) Analysis of the frequency of cells with short telomeres (<5 kb) reveals a significant difference between cancer patients and those with genetic disorders and healthy donors. (D) The frequency of telomere loss, the major telomere aberration that leads to telomere fusion and dicentric chromosome formation, is significantly higher in cancer patients and those with genetic syndromes than in healthy donors. (E) Similarly, the frequency of telomere deletions is significantly higher in cancer patients and those with genetic disorders than in healthy donors. (F) There is no significant difference in telomere doublet formation between healthy donors and patients with genetic disorders.