Is Epigenetic Status of Cancer Cells Influence Telomere Length?

Is Epigenetic Status of Cancer Cells Influence Telomere Length?


Telomeres are specialised chromatin structures essential for chromosome end protection and chromosomal stability are located at the end of the eukaryotic chromosomes and contain DNA sequences that are repeated many times. In normal (non-cancerous) human somatic cells telomere contain about 500 to 3000 TTAGGG repeats and are gradually shorten with age whereas in cancer cells do not shorten with age. It has also been found that cells with longer telomere length survive longer and go through more cell divisions than cells with shorter telomeres.

In recent studies it is found that in more than 90% of all cancer types in human tumours there is an increase in telomerase activity, an enzyme involved in regulation of telomere length. This shows that a certain minimum length of telomeres is necessary to maintain in order to sustain tumour growth. Thus one of the ways to combat cancer is to control telomere length by inhibiting telomerase activity and also other possible mechanisms that regulate telomere length in cancer cells.

REFERENCE:

Vera, E, Canela, A, Fraga, MF, Esteller, M & Blasco MA 2008, ‘Epigenetic regulation of telomeres in human cancer’, Oncogene, vol. 27, no. 54, pp. 6817-6833.

Jameris Dkhar
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