Telomerase activity in human germline and embryonic tissues and cells.

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein that synthesizes telomere repeats onto chromosome ends and is involved in maintaining telomere length in germline tissues and in immortal and cancer cells. In the present study, the temporal regulation of expression of telomerase activity was examined in human germline and somatic tissues and cells during development. Telomerase activity was detected in fetal, newborn, and adult testes and ovaries, but not in mature spermatozoa or oocytes. Blastocysts expressed high levels of telomerase activity as did most human somatic tissues at 16-20 weeks of development with the exception of human brain tissue. This activity could no longer be detected in the somatic tissues examined from the neonatal period onward. Neither placenta nor cultured fetal amniocytes contained detectable telomerase activity. Fetal tissues explanted into primary cell culture showed a dramatic decline in telomerase activity which became undetectable after the first passage in vitro. Elucidation of the regulatory pathways involved in the repression of telomerase activity during development may lead to the ability to manipulate telomerase levels and explore the consequences both for cellular aging and for the survival of cancer cells.

[1]  J. Shay,et al.  Activation of telomerase in human lymphocytes and hematopoietic progenitor cells. , 1995, Journal of immunology.

[2]  J. Shay,et al.  Modifications of a telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) result in increased reliability, linearity and sensitivity. , 1995, Nucleic acids research.

[3]  S. Bacchetti,et al.  Telomeres and telomerase in human cancer (review). , 1995, International journal of oncology.

[4]  J. Shay,et al.  Time, telomeres and tumours: is cellular senescence more than an anticancer mechanism? , 1995, Trends in cell biology.

[5]  J. Shay,et al.  Telomerase activity in gastric cancer. , 1995, Cancer research.

[6]  J. Shay,et al.  Telomerase activity in human liver tissues: comparison between chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinomas. , 1995, Cancer research.

[7]  A. Gazdar,et al.  Telomerase activity in small-cell and non-small-cell lung cancers. , 1995, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[8]  C. Greider,et al.  Developmental and tissue-specific regulation of mouse telomerase and telomere length. , 1995, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[9]  B. Leber,et al.  Telomerase activity in normal leukocytes and in hematologic malignancies. , 1995, Blood.

[10]  D. S. Coffey,et al.  Frontiers in prostate cancer. Telomeres and chaos , 1995 .

[11]  C B Harley,et al.  Telomeres and telomerase in aging and cancer. , 1995, Current opinion in genetics & development.

[12]  J. Shay,et al.  Detection of telomerase activity in human cells and tumors by a telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) , 1995 .

[13]  Keiko Hiyama,et al.  Correlating telomerase activity levels with human neuroblastoma outcomes , 1995, Nature Medicine.

[14]  L. Gollahon,et al.  Spontaneous in vitro immortalization of breast epithelial cells from a patient with Li-Fraumeni syndrome , 1995, Molecular and cellular biology.

[15]  J. Shay,et al.  You Haven't Heard the End of It: Telomere Loss May Link Human Aging with Cancer , 1995, Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement.

[16]  P. Lansdorp.  Telomere length and proliferation potential of hematopoietic stem cells. , 1995, Journal of cell science.

[17]  C B Harley,et al.  Specific association of human telomerase activity with immortal cells and cancer. , 1994, Science.

[18]  C B Harley,et al.  Evidence for a mitotic clock in human hematopoietic stem cells: loss of telomeric DNA with age. , 1994, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[19]  C. Greider,et al.  Telomerase activity in germline and embryonic cells of Xenopus. , 1994, The EMBO journal.

[20]  E. Blackburn.  Telomeres: No end in sight , 1994, Cell.

[21]  T. Lange,et al.  Activation of telomerase in a human tumor. , 1994 .

[22]  C. Harley,et al.  Telomerase activity in human ovarian carcinoma. , 1994, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[23]  A. Akane,et al.  Identification of the heme compound copurified with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from bloodstains, a major inhibitor of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. , 1994, Journal of forensic sciences.

[24]  J. Shay,et al.  Loss of telomeric DNA during aging may predispose cells to cancer (review). , 1993, International journal of oncology.

[25]  C B Harley,et al.  Telomere length predicts replicative capacity of human fibroblasts. , 1992, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[26]  C. Harley,et al.  The telomere hypothesis of cellular aging , 1992, Experimental Gerontology.

[27]  J. Steitz,et al.  Telomere shortening associated with chromosome instability is arrested in immortal cells which express telomerase activity. , 1992, The EMBO journal.

[28]  J. Shay,et al.  Defining the molecular mechanisms of human cell immortalization. , 1991, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[29]  C B Harley,et al.  Telomere loss: mitotic clock or genetic time bomb? , 1991, Mutation research.

[30]  Thomas E. Johnson,et al.  Evolutionary biology of aging , 1990 .

[31]  S. Goldstein.  Replicative senescence: the human fibroblast comes of age. , 1990, Science.

[32]  Robin C. Allshire,et al.  Telomere reduction in human colorectal carcinoma and with ageing , 1990, Nature.

[33]  C. Greider.  Telomeres, telomerase and senescence , 1990, BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology.

[34]  C. Harley,et al.  Telomeres shorten during ageing of human fibroblasts , 1990, Nature.

[35]  M. Kirschner,et al.  A major developmental transition in early xenopus embryos: I. characterization and timing of cellular changes at the midblastula stage , 1982, Cell.

[36]  L. Hayflick,et al.  The serial cultivation of human diploid cell strains. , 1961, Experimental cell research.

[37]  P. Medawar.  UNSOLVED problem of biology. , 1953, The Medical journal of Australia.