Stem cells live long and prosper
Overexpression of hTERT in human bone marrow stem cells increases their life span and osteogenic potential.
Jun 23, 2002
Bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSSCs) have a limited
Songtao Shi and colleagues at US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, observed that BMSSCs transduced with human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) lived longer than controls. In addition hTERT-expressing BMSSCs generated more bone tissue, with a mineralized lamellar bone structure and associated marrow. The bone-forming ability correlated with sustained expression of the early pre-osteogenic stem cell marker STRO-1. This inicates that "telomerase expression helped to maintain the osteogenic stem cell pool during
In the second paper, Janne Simonsen and colleagues at University Hospital of Aarhus, Denmark...