BACKGROUND There is accumulating evidence from the epidemiological field of telomere biology that telomere length plays an important role in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease. The RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, telomerase, is essential in regulating telomere length by acting as a reverse transcriptase. However, the relationship between telomerase activity and telomere length in cardi...

Expression of telomerase is one of the hallmarks of tumor cells and has been used as a diagnostic biomarker and a therapeutic target in cancer. Novel findings have shown that telomerase activation in normal human epithelial cells may affect expression of several cancer-related genes, such as growth-related genes and c-myc gene, suggesting a possible role of telomerase in tumor initiation. There...

The correlation between telomerase activity, telomere lengths, and cellular replicative capacity has led to the theory that maintenance of telomere lengths by telomerase acts as a molecular clock to control replicative capacity and senescence. Regulation of this molecular clock may have applications in the treatment of cell aging and tumorigenesis, although little is presently known about the r...

The activation of telomerase in unstable plaques is an important factor in atherosclerosis, and may be predictive of the risk of cerebrovascular diseases. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is a subunit of telomerase that is essential for telomerase activation. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether aspirin inhibits the activation of telomerase and hTERT in unstable...

Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein associated with synthesis of telomeric DNA, is postulated to play a role in cellular senescence and immortalization. Telomerase adds a hexonucleotide telomeric sequence to the chromosomal ends during replication and is preferentially expressed in most malignant and germ-line tissues but is usually undetectable in normal somatic cells. In the current study, 34 hum...

Telomerase activation is thought to be a critical step in cellular immortality and oncogenesis. Several reagents including differentiation-inducing and antineoplastic agents are known to inhibit telomerase activity, although the molecular mechanisms through which they inhibit telomerase activity remain unclear. Demethylating reagents have recently been used as potential antineoplastic drugs for...

Reactivation of telomerase plays an important role in carcinogenesis. Malignant cells almost always possess high activity and expression of telomerase. The aim of this study was to see whether there is any relationship between telomerase activity and expression and hTERT and hTERC gene amplification in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and non-lymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL) cells. In addition t...

Telomerase is a specialized reverse transcriptase consisting of both RNA and protein components. Previous characterization of yeast telomerase function in vivo identified four EST (for ever shorter telomeres) genes that, when mutated, result in the phenotypes expected for a defect in telomerase. Consistent with this genetic prediction, the EST2 gene has recently been shown to encode the catalyt...

The strong correlation between cancer and telomerase activity has inspired the development of new strategies to evaluate telomerase activity. Here, a personal glucose meter (PGM) system that uses DNA-based machine amplification to detect telomerase in cancer cells is reported. In this assay, telomerase elongation products are amplified in the form of another type of product by a DNA-based machi...

Background—While telomerase is undetectable in most normal somatic tissues, telomerase activation has been detected in many immortal cell lines and various cancers. Aim—To investigate telomerase expression in hepatocellular carcinoma, and to assess the expression of the RNA component of telomerase, hTR. Methods—39 hepatocellular carcinomas were studied using a telomerase polymerase chain reacti...