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T Cell Renewal Rates, Telomerase, and Telomere Length Shortening¹

Theoretical Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Measurements on the average telomere lengths of normal human naive and memory T cells suggested that 1) naive and memory human T cells have similar division rates, and 2) that the difference between naive and memory cells reflects the degree of clonal expansion during normal immune reactions. Here we develop mathematic models describing how the population average of telomere length depends on the cell division rates of naive and memory T cells during clonal expansion and normal renewal. The results show that 1) telomeres shorten with twice the cell division rate, 2) that the conventional approach of estimating telomere length shortening per mean population doubling gives rise to estimates that are 39% larger than the "true" loss per cell division, 3) that naive and memory T cells are expected to shorten their telomeres at rates set by the division rate of the naive T cells only, i.e., irrespective of the division rate of memory T cells, 4) that the measured difference in the average telomere length between naive and memory T cells may largely reflect the difference in renewal rates between these subpopulations rather than the clonal expansion, and 5) that full telomerase compensation during clonal expansion is consistent with all data on the shortening of telomere length in, and between, naive and memory T cells. Thus we reconcile the apparent contradictions between the demonstrated difference in division rates between human naive and memory T cells and their similar rates of telomere shortening, and the demonstrated telomere shortening in the presence of telomerase activity.

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