Telomere dysfunction promotes metastasis in a TERC null mouse model of head and neck cancer.

ABSTRACT: Squamous cell carcinoma arises from highly proliferative basal layer epithelial cells, which normally divide for a short time before detaching from the basement membrane and undergoing terminal differentiation. Basal layer cells in stratified epithelia express the reverse transcriptase known as telomerase. Most human cells do not express telomerase and therefore are subject to loss of telomeric DNA with age due to the inability of lagging strand synthesis to completely replicate chromosomal ends. Late generation telomerase deficient mice exhibit signs of premature aging including reduced function of proliferating cellular compartments. We examined development of squamous cell carcinoma in a telomerase deficient murine background with long and short telomeres. G1 Terc-/- mice (long telomere

SUBMITTER: Bojovic B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3140542 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature