Telomeric structure in cells with chromosome end associations

End-to-end associations of metaphase chromosomes have been observed in a variety of human tumors, ageing cells, and several chromosome instability syndromes. Since telomeres of tumor cells and ageing tissues are often reduced in length, it has been suggested that chromosome end associations may be d...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chromosoma 1993, Vol.102 (2), p.121-128
Main Authors: SALTMAN, D, MORGAN, R, CLEARY, M. L, DE LANGE, T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Base Sequence
Biological and medical sciences
cell lines
Chromosome Banding
chromosomes
Cytogenetics
DNA, Neoplasm - chemistry
DNA, Neoplasm - genetics
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution
Human
Humans
Karyotyping
Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse - genetics
Male
man
Melanoma - genetics
Metaphase
Molecular Sequence Data
Oligonucleotide Probes
Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
structure
Telomere - chemistry
Telomere - physiology
Telomere - ultrastructure
telomeres
Tumor Cells, Cultured
tumours
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:End-to-end associations of metaphase chromosomes have been observed in a variety of human tumors, ageing cells, and several chromosome instability syndromes. Since telomeres of tumor cells and ageing tissues are often reduced in length, it has been suggested that chromosome end associations may be due to loss of telomeric repeats. We report the molecular structure of telomeres of two human tumor cell lines with frequent end-to-end associations of metaphase chromosomes. These telomeres were shown to be severely reduced compared with most other human cells with functional telomeres. However, we also describe two cell lines with severely shortened telomeres that are not detectably compromised in their function. We suggest that telomeric length is not the only determinant of the fusigenic behavior of human telomeres in tumor cells.
ISSN:0009-5915
1432-0886
DOI:10.1007/BF00356029