[Telomere length in breast carcinoma of the young and aged]

In order to clarify the relationship between the telomeric length of human female breast carcinoma cells and patient age, and between telomeric length and the histological type of carcinoma, we examined 64 patients (aged 20-89 years) with breast carcinoma by histological and southern blot analysis. No difference in the telomeric length was recognizable among the three major histological types: papillotubular, solid tubular and scirrhous (7.9-8.7 kilobase pairs (kbp)). Mean telomere lengths in the groups aged under 35 (8 patients), 36-50 (10 patients), 51-70 (17 patients), 71-80 (19 patients), and over 81 years (10 patients) were 11.0, 9.9, 7.0, 7.7 and 7.6 kbp, respectively. There was no significant evidence for telomeric shortening in breast carcinoma according to patient age. Two peaks of telomeric length were observed in three carcinomas comprising a medullary carcinoma and two solid tubular carcinomas showing very prominent lymphocyte infiltration histologically.