scholarly journals Coexistence of Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres and Telomerase in hTERT-Transfected GM847 Cells

2001 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 3862-3875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kilian Perrem ◽  
Lorel M. Colgin ◽  
Axel A. Neumann ◽  
Thomas R. Yeager ◽  
Roger R. Reddel

ABSTRACT It has been shown previously that some immortalized human cells maintain their telomeres in the absence of significant levels of telomerase activity by a mechanism referred to as alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). Cells utilizing ALT have telomeres of very heterogeneous length, ranging from very short to very long. Here we report the effect of telomerase expression in the ALT cell line GM847. Expression of exogenous hTERT in GM847 (GM847/hTERT) cells resulted in lengthening of the shortest telomeres; this is the first evidence that expression of hTERT in ALT cells can induce telomerase that is active at the telomere. However, rapid fluctuation in telomere length still occurred in the GM847/hTERT cells after more than 100 population doublings. Very long telomeres and ALT-associated promyelocytic leukemia (PML) bodies continued to be generated, indicating that telomerase activity induced by exogenous hTERT did not abolish the ALT mechanism. In contrast, when the GM847 cell line was fused with two different telomerase-positive tumor cell lines, the ALT phenotype was repressed in each case. These hybrid cells were telomerase positive, and the telomeres decreased in length, very rapidly at first and then at the rate seen in telomerase-negative normal cells. Additionally, ALT-associated PML bodies disappeared. After the telomeres had shortened sufficiently, they were maintained at a stable length by telomerase. Together these data indicate that the telomerase-positive cells contain a factor that represses the ALT mechanism but that this factor is unlikely to be telomerase. Further, the transfection data indicate that ALT and telomerase can coexist in the same cells.

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 2070-2082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaud Jegou ◽  
Inn Chung ◽  
Gerrit Heuvelman ◽  
Malte Wachsmuth ◽  
Sabine M. Görisch ◽  
...  

Telomerase-negative tumor cells maintain their telomeres via an alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) mechanism. This process involves the association of telomeres with promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies (PML-NBs). Here, the mobility of both telomeres and PML-NBs as well as their interactions were studied in human U2OS osteosarcoma cells, in which the ALT pathway is active. A U2OS cell line was constructed that had lac operator repeats stably integrated adjacent to the telomeres of chromosomes 6q, 11p, and 12q. By fluorescence microscopy of autofluorescent LacI repressor bound to the lacO arrays the telomere mobility during interphase was traced and correlated with the telomere repeat length. A confined diffusion model was derived that describes telomere dynamics in the nucleus on the time scale from seconds to hours. Two telomere groups were identified that differed with respect to the nuclear space accessible to them. Furthermore, translocations of PML-NBs relative to telomeres and their complexes with telomeres were evaluated. Based on these studies, a model is proposed in which the shortening of telomeres results in an increased mobility that could facilitate the formation of complexes between telomeres and PML-NBs.


2005 ◽  
Vol 65 (7) ◽  
pp. 2730-2737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Marciniak ◽  
David Cavazos ◽  
Richard Montellano ◽  
Qijun Chen ◽  
Leonard Guarente ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 122 (11) ◽  
pp. 2414-2421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie N. Jeyapalan ◽  
Aaron Mendez-Bermudez ◽  
Nadia Zaffaroni ◽  
Yuri E. Dubrova ◽  
Nicola J. Royle

Blood ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 106 (11) ◽  
pp. 1179-1179
Author(s):  
Rajendra N. Damle ◽  
Taraneh Banapour ◽  
Cristina Sison ◽  
Steven L. Allen ◽  
Kanti R. Rai ◽  
...  

Abstract Telomere shortening is a consequence of repetitive clonal replication and leads to clonal deletion unless DNA extension and repair occur. All tumors must circumvent this problem by up-regulating mechanisms that lead to chromosomal lengthening. Two mechanisms have been identified that maintain chromosome ends- telomerase that does so by reverse transcription and alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) that occurs by homologous recombination. The latter function is characterized by the presence of promyelocytic leukemia protein-associated nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) and the presence of PML-NB is used to mark cells that use this process. B cell Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) cells with unmutated Ig V genes have shorter mean telomere lengths compared with those exhibiting mutated Ig V genes. In addition, cells with unmutated Ig V genes demonstrate more telomerase activity than their mutated counterparts. The mutated cases show long and heterogeneously elongated telomeres in spite of the absence, in most cases, of detectable telomerase activity. Therefore we determined whether the ALT pathway plays a role in telomere maintenance in B-CLL, using a monoclonal anti-PML antibody and a flow-cytometric assay for assessment of PML protein. Telomerase-expressing Jurkat T cells and murine fibroblasts-L cells served as negative controls for PML staining, whereas the ALT positive Osteosarcoma cell line U2-OS served as a positive control. In a cohort of 20 B-CLL cases, PML protein was detected in all cases regardless of Ig V mutation status. In addition, a similar percentage of cells within the clones contained PML (10 - 90% of the members of unmutated clones and 11–96% of mutated clones), whereas peripheral blood B cells from 6/6 elderly normal donors did not show any PML staining. PML expression was compared with telomere length and telomerase activity in the same cases. The percentage of cells showing PML expression inversely correlated with telomerase activity (r= −0.58; p=0.029). Although in most published reports telomere maintenance by ALT occurs in the absence of telomerase activity, we found ALT (as suggested by PML positive cells) in cells with telomerase activity (detected by the standard TRAP assay). Thus, B-CLL cases can express PML bodies and some B-CLL cells can contain both PML-NB and express telomerase activity. These findings suggest that B-CLL cells can use two distinct mechanisms to assure telomere maintenance and perpetuate clonal survival and expansion.


Blood ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 110 (11) ◽  
pp. 2851-2851
Author(s):  
Yun Xu ◽  
He Huang ◽  
Yanmin Zhao ◽  
Fenfang Zeng ◽  
Qian Zhou

Abstract Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a special subtype of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) which is characterized for a specific translocation between chromosome 15 and 17 [t(15;17)] and the expression of PML/RARα fusion gene. Celecoxib, one of the specific inhibitors of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), has been reported to induce anti-neoplastic activity on many solid human tumor cell lines in recent years. In our study, ATRA resistant APL cell line MR2 cells were used to investigate the effects of celecoxib on hematological malignancy. MR2 cells were treated with celecoxib at different concentration (0, 20, 40, 80, 120 and 160μmol/L). The proliferation of MR2 cells was observed by MTT assay and apoptosis was detected by DNA fragmentation analysis and flow cytometry using Annexin V-FITC/PI staining. Western blot was used to detect the change of caspase-8, -9, -3 and PARP in MR2 cells. The expression of mRNA of fusion gene PML/RARα, COX-2 and survivin, bcl-2/bax, CIAP1 and CIAP2 was assessed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Cell cycle analyzed by flow cytometry with PI staining and western blot was used to detect the expression of cell-cycle-regulating proteins. The telomerase activity of MR2 cells was analyzed by PCR-ELISA. The expression of hTERT mRNA and c-myc mRNA was assessed by RT-PCR. MR2 cells viability in presence of celecoxib decreased markedly in a dose- and time- dependent manner. After treated with celecoxib (20-160μmol/L) for 12-48h, the proliferation of MR2 cells were inhibited significantly, in comparison with the control group (P<0.01). 50% growth inhibition (IC50) at 24h and 48h was 80.93μmol/L and 71.72μmol/L, respectively. A DNA ladder pattern of internucleosomal fragmentation was observed. The translocation of phosphatidylserine at the outer surface of the cell plasma membrane could be induced by celecoxib and its level increased following the augmentation of the drug concentration. MR2 cells exposure to 40-160μmol/L celecoxib for 24h caused 9.59%, 24.00%, 36.10% apoptotic cells, which was more than that of the untreated group 2.84% (P<0.01). The expression of survivin mRNA decreased dramatically, while no significant change with PML/RARα and COX-2. Treatment with celecoxib for 24h resulted in the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9, cleavage of PARP. 40-160μmol/L celecoxib led to cell cycle arrest in G1/S phase, and CyclinD1 and CyclinE decreased, accompanied with up-regulation of P21waf/cip1, P27KIP, P16INK4a. celecoxib could inhibit the telomerase activity of APL cell line, and the inhibition was dose- and time- dependent. The expression of hTERT mRNA and c-myc mRNA were down-regulated by celecoxib in dose- dependent manner. These results indicated that celecoxib could inhibit MR2 cells proliferation by inducing apoptosis, cell cycle arrest and suppression of telomerase activity.


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