Telomeres, the dynamic nucleoprotein structures at the ends of linear chromosomes,
maintain the genomic integrity of a cell. Telomere length shortens with age due to the
incomplete replication of DNA ends with each cell division as well as damage incurred by
oxidative stress. Patterns of telomere shortening, genomic instability, and telomerase
expression in many cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal tissue implicate telomere
crisis as a common crucial event in malignant transformation. In order to understand the role …