Fig. 2. Telomere length dynamics and DNA damage responses.

(A) Relative average telomere length in PBMCs (DNA) pre-, in-, and postflight assessed by qRT-PCR for HR (green) and TW (blue). Significance was tested by one-way ANOVA, and error bars represent SEM. (B) Relative average telomere length for TW in sorted PBMC subpopulations, CD19 B cells, CD4 and CD8 T cells, and LD fractions, pre-, in-, and postflight. Boxplot whiskers show min and max. (C and D) Telo-FISH–generated histograms of individual telomere length distributions [shorter to longer, lower to higher relative fluorescent intensity (RFI)] for HR (C) and TW (D) preflight (blue), inflight (red), and postflight (green). (E) Cytogenetic analysis of DNA damage utilizing dGH paints (pink) for chromosomes 1, 2, and 3 facilitated simultaneous detection of translocations and inversions. Representative image of dGH on a metaphase chromosome spread illustrating an intrachromosomal inversion (yellow arrow) and an interchromosomal reciprocal translocation (white arrows). (F) Quantification of translocation (striped bars) and inversion (solid bars) frequencies for HR and TW pre-, in-, and postflight. Results were not statistically significant (one-way ANOVA). Error bars represent SEM.