Telomeres and prognosis in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

In the present study, telomere length, telomerase activity, the mutation load of immunoglobulin variable heavy chain ( IGHV ) genes, and established prognostic factors were investigated in 78 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) to determine the impact of telomere biology on the pathogenesis of CLL. Telomere length was measured by an automated multi-colour flow-FISH, and an age-independent delta telomere length (ΔTL) was calculated. CLL with unmutated IGHV genes was associated with shorter telomeres ( p = 0.002). Furthermore, we observed a linear correlation between the frequency of IGHV gene mutations and elongation of telomeres ( r = 0.509, p