端粒酶与细胞永生化

Progress on Telomerase and Immortalization

端粒是真核细胞染色体末端的一种特殊结构,由端粒DNA和端粒蛋白质组成。正常动物细胞DNA的端粒随着细胞分裂而缩短,当缩短到一定长度时细胞将停止增殖并死亡。端粒酶可以从端粒DNA 3′OH末端延伸端粒或合成新的端粒。本文主要介绍了端粒酶的结构和功能以及在细胞永生化中的应用。

Telomere is specialized DNA- protein structures found at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes. Most of normal animal somatic cells can divide only a number of times and inevitably become senescent. Telomerase is an enzyme that imparts replicative immorality by maintaining the length of the telomere or synthesizing new telomere. This paper introduced the structure and function of telomerase, and also the application in immortalization.