title: Shorter telomeres and high telomerase activity correlate with a highly aggressive phenotype in breast cancer cell lines.
abstract: Maintenance of telomere length is one function of human telomerase that is crucial for the survival of cancer cells and cancer progression. Both telomeres and telomerase have been proposed as possible biomarkers of cancer risk and cancer invasiveness; however, their clinical relevance is still under discussion. In order to improve our understanding of the relationship between telomere length and telomerase activity with cancer invasiveness, we studied telomere length as well as telomerase levels, activity, and intracellular localization in breast cancer cell lines with diverse invasive phenotypes. We found an apparently paradoxical coincidence of short telomeres and enhanced telomerase activity in the most invasive breast cancer cell lines. We also observed that hTERT intracellular localization could be correlated with its level of activity. There was no association between human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) protein expression levels and invasiveness. We propose that simultaneous evaluation of these two biomarkers-telomere length and telomerase activity-could be useful for the assessment of the invasive capacity and aggressiveness of tumor cells from breast cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética y Biología Molecular, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV), Av. Instituto Politécnico Nacional 2508, 07360, Ciudad de México, Mexico.|Unidad de Investigación Médica en Enfermedades Oncológicas, Hospital de Oncología, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Av. Cuauhtémoc 330, 06725, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
authors.forename: Hugo A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Ceja-Rangel
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación Médica en Enfermedades Oncológicas, Hospital de Oncología, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Av. Cuauhtémoc 330, 06725, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Suárez
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación Médica en Enfermedades Oncológicas, Hospital de Oncología, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Av. Cuauhtémoc 330, 06725, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Castellanos-Juárez
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación Médica en Enfermedades Oncológicas, Hospital de Oncología, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Av. Cuauhtémoc 330, 06725, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
authors.forename: Rubicelia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Peñaroja-Flores
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación Médica en Genética Humana, Hospital de Pediatría, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
authors.forename: Diego J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Arenas-Aranda
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética y Biología Molecular, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV), Av. Instituto Politécnico Nacional 2508, 07360, Ciudad de México, Mexico. vidal@cinvestav.mx.
authors.forename: Patricio
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gariglio
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación Médica en Enfermedades Oncológicas, Hospital de Oncología, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Av. Cuauhtémoc 330, 06725, Ciudad de México, Mexico. benibribiesca@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Benítez-Bribiesca
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D020782:Matrix Metalloproteinases / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D010641:Phenotype; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism*; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*; D059506:Telomere Shortening; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D019098:Telomerase; D020782:Matrix Metalloproteinases
keywords: Breast cancer; Cell lines; Telomerase activity; Telomere length; hTERT