{"paper_id":"dce0c30e-18f7-4217-951b-56f3a2b3b814","body_text":"Abstract\nThe etiology of endometriosis remains poorly understood but circulating stem cells may contribute. Telomeres shorten with cell divisions and age. Stem cells attempt to compensate for telomere attrition through the action of telomerase. Since circulating stem cells may contribute to endometriosis, we compared telomere content in lymphocytes of patients with and without endometriosis.\nMethods\nObservational study comparing peripheral lymphocytes telomere content, measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction, in patients with (n = 86) and without endometriosis (n = 21).\nFindings\nPatients with endometriosis had longer telomeres than that of matched, endometriosis-free controls (telomere to single copy gene ratio [T/S ratio] of 1.62 vs 1.34, respectively, P = .00002). Patients with endometriosis were 8.1-fold more likely to have long telomeres. 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Hum Reprod. 2007;22(3):843–849.\nAuthor information\nAuthors and Affiliations\nCorresponding author\nRights and permissions\nAbout this article\nCite this article\nDracxler, R.C., Oh, C., Kalmbach, K. et al. Peripheral Blood Telomere Content Is Greater in Patients With Endometriosis Than in Controls. Reprod. Sci. 21, 1465–1471 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1177/1933719114527353\nPublished:\nIssue date:\nDOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1933719114527353","source_license":"CC0","license_restricted":false}