TELOMERE SHORTENING IN MONOCYTES OF THE PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Abstract

Abstract. Present study deals with size measurements of telomeric DNA from the human peripheral mononuclear immune cells in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A method for measuring the relative telomere length by in situ hybridization followed by flow cytometric analysis (flow-FISH) was used. Relative telomere length (RTL) in monocytes was estimated as mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of test cells divided by MFI values of internal control cells. Hybridization conditions for analysis of telomere length in monocytes have been optimized in advance. It has been shown that RTL of monocytes was significantly lower in RA patients compared to donors. Significant differences in telomere length of monocytes between RA patients and donors were revealed for the young persons under 30 years old. The findings obtained may be considered as an additional argument confirming the hypothesis on genetic defects of hematopoietic stem cells determining RA development.

Keywords

• telomere
• flow cytometry
• rheumatoid arthritis