Telomerase gene therapy results in longer telomeres in lung cells and tumors in the “pre-treatment” group.

A-E Mean telomere fluorescence and percentage of short telomeres in whole lung (A), in ATII cells (B) and in tumors (D) at 40 weeks post-oncogene activation in the pre-treated mice. C,E Representative images showing ATII cells stained with anti-SFTPC (green cytoplasm, yellow arrow heads) by IF and telomeres stained in red by FISH in healthy lung tissue (C) and in tumors (E). Auto-fluorescent red blood cells lacking nuclei are observed in the images. Tumor samples do not show any SFTPC positive cells. Error bars represent standard error. t-test was used for statistical analysis. The number of mice are indicated in each case. *, p<0.05. **, p<0,01.