端粒酶与细胞永生化

Telomerase and cellular immortalization

建立永生化细胞系是生物学研究的热点和难点之一。位于真核生物细胞染色体末端的端粒可以稳定染色体 ,而由RNA和蛋白质组成的端粒酶以自身RNA为模板合成端粒。因此 ,将外源性端粒酶逆转录酶 (TERT)基因转染至目的细胞 ,则可能通过M 1期 -M 2期机制 ,诱导细胞发生永生化。目前 ,人视网膜色素上皮细胞、肺成纤维细胞等已被此方法永生化 。

Establishment of immortalized cell line is one of the hot and difficult subjects in cell biology. Telomeres at chromosome ends in eukaryotes stable the chromosome. Telomerase, an RNA-protein complex, adds multiple telomeric repeats to its 3-prime end by using RNA component as template. Thus ectopic expression of the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and subsequent activation of telomerase can allow normal eukaryotes to overcome senescence and crisis, and become immortal. TERT, which is superior to traditional immortalizing genes, has been used to immortalize human retinal pigment epithelium and lung fibroblast etc. by gene transfection.