Telomere length, c-myc and mad-1 expression could represent prognosis markers of myelodysplastic syndrome

Telomere dysfunction might generate genomic instability leading to the progression of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) into acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We investigated telomere length (TL), telomerase activity (TA) and hTERT, c-myc, mad1, and p53 expression in the bone marrow of patients with MDS (n = 109), AML (n = 47) and in controls (n = 24). TL was lower in MDS patients than in controls (p < 0.001) and higher in L-MDS (low, intermediate-1 IPSS, p < 0.01) respect H-MDS (high, intermediate-2 IPSS, p < 0.01) patients. Mad-1 expression was higher in MDS patients than in controls (p < 0.01), c-myc expression was highest in AML and in H-MDS patients. Our results show that the telomere dynamics might be useful for stratifying patients according to a risk scoring system.