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Updated: Mar 16, 2026

Utilizing Murine Inducible Telomerase Alleles in the Studies of Tissue Degeneration/Regeneration and Cancer
Published on: April 13, 2015
Critical telomerase activity for uncontrolled cell growth
Neil L Wesch1, Laura J Burlock1, Robert J Gooding1,2,3
1Department of Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy, Queen's University, Kingston ON K7L 3N6 Canada.
Abstract:
The lengths of the telomere regions of chromosomes in a population of cells are modelled using a chemical master equation formalism, from which the evolution of the average number of cells of each telomere length is extracted. In particular, the role of the telomere-elongating enzyme telomerase on these dynamics is investigated. We show that for biologically relevant rates of cell birth and death, one finds a critical rate, R crit, of telomerase activity such that the total number of cells diverges. Further, R crit is similar in magnitude to the rates of mitosis and cell death. The possible relationship of this result to replicative immortality and its associated hallmark of cancer is discussed.
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