Telomere Length is a Susceptibility Marker for Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease.

Telomeres protect chromosomes from degradation during cellular replication. In humans, it is well-documented that excessive telomere degradation is one mechanism by which cells can become cancerous. Increasing evidence from wildlife studies suggests that telomere length is positively correlated with survival and health and negatively correlated with disease infection intensity.

Effect of heartfulness meditation on burnout, emotional wellness, and telomere length in health care professionals.

: Burnout poses significant challenges during training years in residency and later in the career. Meditation is a tool to treat stress-related conditions and promote wellness. Telomere length may be affected by burnout and stress.

Change in peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length and mortality in breast cancer survivors.

Background: Progressive telomere shortening with cell division is a hallmark of aging. Short telomeres are associated with increased cancer risk, but there are conflicting reports about telomere length and mortality in breast cancer survivors.

Methods: We measured peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length at two time points in women enrolled in a multiethnic, prospective cohort of stage I to stage IIIA breast cancer survivors diagnosed between 1995 and 1999 with a median follow-up of 11.

Measuring telomere length for the early detection of precursor lesions of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: Esophageal cancer is the sixth leading cause of cancer death worldwide; current early detection screening tests are inadequate. Esophageal balloon cytology successfully retrieves exfoliated and scraped superficial esophageal epithelial cells, but cytologic reading of these cells has poor sensitivity and specificity for detecting esophageal squamous dysplasia (ESD), the precursor lesion of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Measuring telomere length, a marker for chromosomal instability, may improve the utility of balloon cytology for detecting ESD and early ESCC.

No telomere shortening in marrow stroma from patients with MDS.

Telomere shortening with age may lead to genomic instability and an increased risk of cancer. Given the role of the microenvironment in the pathophysiology of the myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), primarily a disease of older age, we determined telomere length in primary cultured marrow stroma cells using quantitative fluorescent in situ hybridization (qFISH) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). qFISH showed comparable rates of decrease in telomere length with age in MDS patients and age-matched healthy controls.

Vertical arrays: microarrays of complex mixtures of nucleic acids.

Vertical arrays are microarrays that have complex mixtures of nucleic acids as array elements, and that are hybridized with single sequence probes. Like dot blots, many different experiments can be spotted on a single vertical array, allowing single genes to be compared across many conditions. Vertical arrays have two additional advantages over dot blots.

Enhanced microarray performance using low complexity representations of the transcriptome.

Low abundance mRNAs are more difficult to examine using microarrays than high abundance mRNAs due to the effect of concentration on hybridization kinetics and signal-to-noise ratios. This report describes the use of low complexity representations (LCRs) of mRNA as the targets for cDNA microarrays. Individual sequences in LCRs are more highly represented than in the mRNA populations from which they are derived, leading to favorable hybridization kinetics.