高三尖杉酯碱对Jurkat细胞端粒酶活性的影响及机制研究

目的 探讨高三尖杉酯碱（HHT）对人T淋巴细胞白血病细胞株Jurkat细胞端粒酶活性的影响及其机制.方法 采用改良的Krupp荧光素标记的端粒重复扩增（TRAP）方法检测HHT对Jurkat细胞端粒酶活性的影响.半定量RT-PCR方法检测HHT作用后Jurkat细胞端粒酶逆转录酶（hTERT）及c-myc原癌基因mRNA的表达水平.结果 HHT对Jurkat细胞端粒酶活性及hTERTmRNA、c-myc基因mRNA表达有明显抑制作用.结论 HHT可通过下调hTERT基因转录抑制淋巴细胞的端粒酶活性.c-myc可能参与调控淋巴细胞hTERT基因转录.     

Hypermethylation of the human telomerase catalytic subunit (hTERT) gene correlates with telomerase activity

DNA methylation is an epigenetic process involved in embryonic development, differentiation and aging. It is 1 of the mechanisms resulting in gene silencing in carcinogenesis, especially in tumor suppressor genes (e.g., p16, Rb). Telomerase, the DNA polymerase adding TTAGGG repeats to the chromosome end, is involved in the regulation of the replicative life span by maintaining telomere length. This enzyme is activated in germ and stem cells, repressed in normal somatic cells and reactivated in a large majority of tumor cells. The promoter region of the hTERT gene, encoding for the catalytic subunit of human telomerase, has been located in a CpG island and may therefore be regulated at least in part by DNA methylation. We analyzed the methylation status of 27 CpG sites within the hTERT promoter core region by methylation-sensitive single-strand conformation analysis (MS-SSCA) and direct sequencing using bisulfite-modified DNA in 56 human tumor cell lines, as well as tumor and normal tissues from different organs. A positive correlation was observed among hypermethylation of the hTERT promoter, hTERT mRNA expression and telomerase activity (p < 0.00001). Furthermore, this correlation was confirmed in normal tissues where hypermethylation of the hTERT promoter was found exclusively in hTERT-expressing telomerase-positive samples and was absent in telomerase-negative samples (p < 0.00002). Since tumor tissues contain also nonneoplastic stromal elements, we performed microdissection to allow confirmation that the hTERT promoter methylation truly occurred in tumor cells. Our results suggest that methylation may be involved in the regulation of hTERT gene expression. To our knowledge, this is the first gene in which methylation of its promoter sequence has been found to be positively correlated with gene expression.