Scientific Literature Focused On Chromosomal Dna And Dna,...

Conglomeration of Scientific Literature Focused on Chromosomal Telomere Length (TL) In Blood Leukocytes, Sputum, and Buccal Cells as It Relates to Cancer Occurrences by: Andy Barajas Bio 490, Fall 2014 Department of Biological Sciences California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Abstract This is a conglomeration of scientific literature as it relates telomere length in blood cells to the occurrence of cancer. Telomeres are composed of repeating TTAGGG nucleotides and they are found at the ends of chromosomes. These chromosomal caps are what protect the genetic material of a cell. Every time a cell replicates its DNA, its telomeres become slightly shorter than the parent cell. Upon excessive shortening of the telomere, the chromosomal genetic information begins to degrade upon replication which leads to instability. This eventually can cause cancer as the studies discussed in this paper have shown. Individuals who have an inherited bone marrow condition known as Dyskeratosis congenita (DC) have short telomeres and an 11-fold increase chance of getting cancer. Overall, cancer patients were found to have shorter telomeres than usual in their leukocytes, sputum, or buccal cells. The cancers of interest in this review include: head and neck, breast, gastric, lung, colore ctal, ovarian, esophageal, prostate, skin bladder, renal, endometrial, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and liver cancer. Introduction Chromosomes are usually capped by non-coding sequences known as telomeres. As