You Are Involved in a Clinical Study Aimed at Examination

You are involved in a clinical study aimed at examination of effects of telomere length on aging and disease. You experimentally determine the length of telomeric repeats in children and adults, including both groups with individuals of normal development and abnormal development. In addition, you have included a group of individuals suffering various cancers. Which of the following observations would most closely reflect the findings of your study?

A) longer telomeres in all the abnormal groups
B) longer telomeres in developmentally disabled and cancer groups
C) shorter telomeres in the older group and the developmentally disabled group
D) shorter telomeres in the older group only
E) shorter telomeres in only the young and developmentally normal individuals