Telomerase activity in vivo in human malignant hematopoietic cells

In somatic cells, each DNA replication round gives a shortening of the telomere ends as a consequence of incomplete lagging strand synthesis. Telomeres are essential for chromosomal integrity and extensive telomere length reduction is associated with increased instability of the genome. In germ line cells and in established cell lines, telomerase activity maintains the length of the telomeres by de novo synthesis of telomeric repeats, in humans (T2AG3)n. Recently, it was for the first time shown the existence of telomerase activity in human ovarian carcinomas. In the present study we show that telomerase activation can also occur in human hematopoietic tumor cells in vivo. Cell extracts from 19 cases with leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma were tested for telomerase activity using an in vitro assay with (T2AG3)3 or permutations of this sequence as primers. Eight cases demonstrated an RNAse A sensitive ability to add new nucleotides to the human telomere sequence. Nine acute leukemias were tested telomerase negative. Our data demonstrate that telomerase activation in vivo seems to be a common event in B cell neoplasias with a mature immunophenotype like non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and myeloma, in contrast to acute leukemias of B, T or myeloid cell origin. Telomere length evaluation indicated no marked differences between samples with or without telomerase activity which could argue for a telomere length independent mechanism for telomerase activation in at least some cases.