Fig. 4

Telomere length and cell-ageing markers in CD8⁺ lymphocytes of PD patients compared to controls. A Telomere length is expressed as a ratio of telomere base pairs/single copy gene base pairs (T/S ratio), efficiency corrected [35]. Two-tailed unpaired Welch’s t-test, t(108.2) = 0.245, p = 0.807. B Relative mRNA expression levels of hTERT expressed as the log2-fold change (2^−∆∆CT). Two-tailed unpaired Welch’s t-test, t(62.76) = 1.159, p = 0.251. C Relative mRNA expression levels of p16 expressed as the log2-fold change (2^−∆∆CT). Two-tailed unpaired Welch’s t-test, t(62.74) = 3.274, p = 0.002. D Relative mRNA expression levels of p21 expressed as the log2-fold change (2^−∆∆CT). Two-tailed unpaired Welch’s t-test, t(74.73) = 1.143, p = 0.886. hTERT: human telomerase enzyme reverse transcriptase. Control n = 59, PD n = 57. **p < 0.001