Telomeres in neonates: new insights in fetal hematopoiesis

Progressive telomere shortening occurs in somatic cells, and with increasing donor age a significant decline in telomere length has been shown in various postnatal tissues. In contrast, little is known about changes in telomere length during human fetal development. Therefore, we measured telomere length in the leukocyte fraction of umbilical cord blood samples from 15 preterm (<37 wk of gestation) and 11 full-term (>37 wk of gestation) neonates using the telomere restriction fragment assay. Whereas no differences in mean (+/- SD) telomere restriction fragment between the groups of preterm neonates (8512 +/- 523 bp) and full-term newborns (8323 +/- 503 bp) could be found, significantly longer telomeres (p = 0.002) were found in very low birth weight preterm neonates when compared with low birth weight preterm neonates. In addition, a rapid and significant decline in mean telomere restriction fragment was observed between 27 and 32 wk of gestation (p = 0.02, r = 0.79) followed by a period of no significant loss of telomere repeats between 33 and 42 wk of gestation. These results are consistent with the known almost maximal proliferation rate of hematopoietic progenitor cells before 32 wk of gestation. The initial decrease in telomere restriction fragment could be caused by ontogeny-related functional alterations of hematopoietic cells or differences in stem cell turnover or the rate of telomere loss per cell division.