Comparative assessment of telomere length before and after hematopoietic SCT: role of grafted cells in determining post-transplant telomere status

doi:doi:10.1038/bmt.2009.297

Bone Marrow Transplantation advance online publication 19 October 2009; doi: 10.1038/bmt.2009.297

Comparative assessment of telomere length before and after hematopoietic SCT: role of grafted cells in determining post-transplant telomere status

M Ruella^1,3,6,7, A Rocci^1,7, I Ricca², C Carniti⁴, C Labetti Bodoni¹, M Ladetto¹, D Caracciolo¹, M Boccadoro¹, C Carlo-Stella⁵, P Corradini⁴ and C Tarella^1,3,6

¹Dipartimento di Medicina ed Oncologia Sperimentale, Divisione di Ematologia, Università di Torino, Torino, Italy
²Division Medicina Generale, Ospedale Cottolengo, Torino, Italy
³Molecular Biotechnology Center—Università di Torino, Torino, Italy
⁴Hematology—BMT Unit, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milano, Italy
⁵Oncologia Medica, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milano, Italy
⁶SCDU Ematologia e Terapie Cellulari, AO Mauriziano – Umberto I, Torino, Italy

Correspondence: Dr C Tarella, Dipartimento Medicina e Oncologia Sp., SCDU Ematologia e Terapie Cellulari, AO Ordine Mauriziano – Umberto I and Molecular Biotechnology Center (MBC), Torino, Italy. E-mail: corrado.tarella@unito.it

⁷These authors contributed equally to this work.

Received 10 June 2009; Revised 3 September 2009; Accepted 13 September 2009; Published online 19 October 2009.

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Abstract

Our objective was to characterize the role of grafted cells in determining telomere length (TL) after hematopoietic SCT (HSCT). A total of 20 patients undergoing autografts had PBSC collected after two sequential mobilization courses: TL in the first collection was significantly longer than in the second. For their autografts, 10 patients used PBSC from the first collection and 10 from the second. TL was also investigated before and after HSCT and on the graft in 10 allogeneic HSCT. After autografting, patients receiving PBSC from the first collection had BM TL reflecting that of grafted cells (median bp: 7730 on PBSC vs 7610 on post-HSCT BM, P=NS) and significantly longer than TL of the second collection; analogously, patients autografted with PBSC from the second collection had BM TL reflecting that of grafted cells (7360 on PBSC vs 7120 on post-HSCT BM, P=NS) and significantly shorter compared with the first collection. In the allograft setting, eight patients had their pre-transplant TL significantly shorter than donor PBSC (5960 vs 7110; P=0.0005); following HSCT, BM TL (median 7380 bp) was identical to that of the graft (P=NS). We conclude that grafted cells have a major role in determining TL after HSCT.