TELOMERASE ACTIVITY IN NORMAL AND MALIGNANT HEMATOPOIETIC-CELLS

Bone marrow and peripheral blood leukocytes from 19 leukemia patients were found to contain telomerase activity detectable by a PCR-based as say. Telomerase was also detectable in nonmalignant bone marrow and pe ripheral blood leukocytes from normal donors, including fractions enri ched for granulocytes, T lymphocytes, and monocytes/B cells. Semiquant itative comparison revealed considerable overlap between telomerase ac tivities in samples from normal subjects and leukemia patients, confou nding evaluation of the role of telomerase in this disease, These data indicate that human telomerase is not restricted to immortal cells an d suggest that the somatic expression of this enzyme may be more wides pread than was previously inferred from the decline of human telomeres .