TITLE : MPD in Telomerase Null Mice PRINCIPAL

XWH - 05 - 1 - 0534 TITLE : MPD in Telomerase Null Mice

Lessons from Mice without Telomerase

T he observation that almost all malignant cancers have telomerase activity has been explained by the assumption that telomerase is crucial for the progression of malignancy. Surprisingly, cells from mice without a functional telomerase RNA gene and no telomerase activity are indistinguishable from normal cells in different transformation and immortalization assays. However, detailed analysis o...

Telomere dysfunction alters the chemotherapeutic profile of transformed cells.

Telomerase inhibition has been touted as a novel cancer-selective therapeutic goal based on the observation of high telomerase levels in most cancers and the importance of telomere maintenance in long-term cellular growth and survival. Here, the impact of telomere dysfunction on chemotherapeutic responses was assessed in normal and neoplastic cells derived from telomerase RNA null (mTERC(-/-)) ...

Essential role for telomerase in chronic myeloid leukemia induced by BCR-ABL in mice

The telomerase protein is constitutively activated in malignant cells from many patients with cancer, including the chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), but whether telomerase is essential for the pathogenesis of this disease is not known. Here, we used telomerase deficient mice to determine the requirement for telomerase in CML induced by BCR-ABL in mouse models of CML. Loss of one telomerase allel...

Telomere dysfunction promotes metastasis in a TERC null mouse model of head and neck cancer.

Squamous cell carcinoma arises from highly proliferative basal layer epithelial cells, which normally divide for a short time before detaching from the basement membrane and undergoing terminal differentiation. Basal layer cells in stratified epithelia express the reverse transcriptase known as telomerase. Most human cells do not express telomerase and therefore are subject to loss of telomeric...