Telomere length in lymphoblast cell lines derived from clinically radiosensitive cancer patients.

Approximately 1-5 percent of cancer patients suffer from significant side effects in normal tissue after radiotherapy (RT). Although RT is an effective cancer therapy, treatment dose intensities are restricted to minimize the incidence of such normal tissue reactions. Therefore, most patients receive lower dose intensities than can be tolerated in normal tissue.

Uncoupling of telomere length and radiosensitivity in mouse lymphoma cell lines of similar genetic background.

Purpose: To investigate the link between radiosensitivity and telomere length in murine lymphoid cell line stocks that have similar genetic backgrounds but different radiosensitivities.

Materials And Methods: We used two stocks from both the parental L5,178Y-R cell line and the repair-deficient radiosensitive subline, L5,178Y-S, to assess telomere length. We used terminal restriction fragment analysis and flow-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) telomere length assessment to determine telomere lengths in the related radiosensitive and non-radiosensitive cell lines.