Submitted March 10, 2009
Accepted April 22, 2009
Cellular senescence of white blood cells in very long-term survivors after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: the role of chronic GVHD and a female donor gender
Gabriela M. Baerlocher*, Alicia Rovo, Astrid Muller, Sybille Matthey, Martin Stern, Jorg Halter, Dominik Heim, Johannes Rischewski, Alois Gratwohl, and Andre Tichelli
Department of Hematology, University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland
Department of Hematology, University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
Department of Clinical Research, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Department of Oncology, Children's University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
* Corresponding author; email: gabriela.baerlocher{at}insel.ch.
In this single center, cross-sectional study, we evaluated 44 very long-term survivors with a median follow-up of 17.5 (range 11-26) years after HSCT. We assessed in HLA-identical donor and recipient sibling pairs the telomere length difference and searched for its relationship with clinical factors. The telomere length (kb mean±1std) was significantly shorter in all recipient blood cells compared to their donors (p<0.01); granulocytes (6.5±0.9 versus 7.1±0.9), naive/memory T-cells (5.7±1.2 versus 6.6±1.2; 5.2±1.0 versus 5.7±0.9), B-cells (7.1±1.1 versus 7.8±1.1), NK/NKT-cells (4.8±1.0 versus 5.6±1.3). Chronic GVHD (p< 0.04) and a female donor (p< 0.04) were associated with a higher telomere length difference between donor and recipient. Critically short telomeres have been described in degenerative diseases and secondary malignancies. If this hypothesis can be confirmed, identification of recipients at risk for cellular senescence could become part of monitoring long-term survivors after HSCT.
