Telomerase in T Lymphocytes: Use It and Lose It?
Open accessAbstract
The enzyme telomerase counteracts telomere loss in proliferating cells and extends their capacity for replication. The importance of telomerase is highlighted by the award of the 2006 Albert Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research for its discovery. Malignant cells subvert telomerase induction to their advantage, and up-regulation of this enzyme confers these populations with unlimited proliferative potential with obvious detrimental consequences. However this enzyme is also essential for the lifelong maintenance of normal cell populations that have a high rate of turnover. Thymic involution in early adulthood dictates that memory T cell populations have to be maintained by continuous proliferation. This highlights the inherent paradox that telomerase down-regulation in T cells may protect against malignancy yet also lead to replicative exhaustion of repeatedly activated memory T cells. In this article, we review the data on telomerase regulation in T lymphocytes and the implications this has for the maintenance of T cell memory.
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End-stage senescent CD27−CD28− T cells accumulate in old age and in patients with autoimmune diseases and chronic viral infections.
“These cells accumulate in old age and in patients with autoimmune diseases and chronic viral infections [102].”
From Evolution of the immune system in humans from infancy to old age (2015) · cites this paper as [102]
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References 83 · Cited by 96
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Zijlmans, J. M., U. M. Martens, S. S. a ´S. Poon, A. K. Raap, H. J. Tanke, R. K. Ward, and P. M. Lansdorp. 1997. Telomeres in the mouse have large inter-chromosomal variations in the number of T2AG3 repeats. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94: 7423-7428.
- Authors
- Akbar, A. N., & Vukmanovic-Stejic, M.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Department of Immunology and Molecular Pathology, University College London , London ,
- ORCID
- Akbar, Arne N
- Venue
- The Journal of Immunology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2007-06-01
- Volume
- 178
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 6689-6694
- ISSN
- 0022-1767 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-6606
- OpenAlex
- W2123579011
- Cited by
- 96
- References
- 83
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 0.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Journal of Immunology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Keywords
- telomerase, T cells, telomere length, memory T cells, thymic involution, telomerase regulation, cell proliferation
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Enzyme Activation, Humans, Immunologic Memory, Lymphocyte Activation, T-Lymphocytes, Telomerase
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