Telomere Length Changes of Lymphocytes in Aplastic Anemia

Aplastic anemia (AA) is a primary disorder of severe bone marrow failure characterized by pancytopenia. The pathogenesis of AA is closely related to T cell hyperfunction. Abnormal telomere shortening of bone marrow mononuclear cells which has been reported in AA not only lead to genomic instability and apoptosis but also regulate T cells immunity to antigen. Interestingly,lymphocytes with shorter telomere length have undergone apoptosis escape in autoimmune disease. In our study, the relative telomere length (RTLs) of CD3⁺, CD3⁺CD4⁺, CD3⁺CD8⁺, CD19⁺ and CD34⁺ cells were investigated in 14 untreated AA patients and 32 controls. The RTLs of CD3⁺,CD3⁺CD4⁺ and CD3⁺CD8⁺T lymphocytes were shorter than those of the controls. Meanwhile, no differences in CD19⁺B and CD34⁺ cells were found between AA and controls. A change in telomere length may be involved in the pathogenesis of AA and could be considered as a predictive biomarker for the diagnose of AA.