Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Review
  • Published:

Refining the telomere-telomerase hypothesis of aging and cancer

Abstract

While there has been substantial experimental evidence in support of the telomere-telomerase hypothesis of aging and cancer, it has been suggested that the theory has been oversimplified to the exclusion of alternative mechanisms in the progression of cancer. This review strives to present an overview of some of the areas that have not been well explained and to indicate where multiple interpretations of the data are possible.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Harley, C.B., Futcher, A.B., and Greider, C.W. 1990. Telomeres shorten during aging. Nature 345: 458–460.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Counter, C.M., Avilion, A.A., LeFeuvre, C.E., Stewart, N.G., Greider, C.W., Harley, C.B., and Bacchetti, S. 1992. Telomere shortening associated with chromosome instability is arrested in immortal cells which express telomerase activity. EMBO J. 11: 1921–1929.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Shay, J.W., Werbin, H., and Wright, W.E. 1995. You haven't heard the end of it: telomere loss may link human aging with cancer. Canad. J. Aging 14: 511–524.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Counter, C.M., Gupta, J., Harley, C.B., Leber, B., and Bacchetti, S. 1995. Telomerase activity in normal leukocytes and in hematologic malignancies. Blood 85: 2315–2320.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hiyama, E., Hiyama, K., Yokoyama, T., Matsuura, Y., Piatyszek, M.A., and Shay, J.W. 1995. Correlating telomerase activity levels with human neuroblastoma outcomes. Nature Med. 1: 249–255.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hiyama, K., Hirai, Y., Kyoizumi, S., Akiyama, M., Hiyama, E., Piatyszek, M.A., Shay, J.W., Ishoika, S., and Yamakido, M. 1995. Activation of telomerase in human lymphocytes and hematopoietic progenitor cells. J. Immunol. 155: 3711–3715.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Hiyama, K., Hiyama, E., Ishoika, S., Yamakido, M., Inai, K., Gazdar, A.F., Piatyszek, M.A. and Shay, J.W. 1995. Telomerase activity in small-cell and non-small-cell lung cancers. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 87: 895–902.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hiyama, E., Yokoyama, T., Tatsumoto, N., Hiyama, K., Imamura, Y., Murakami, Y., Kodama, T., Piatyszek, M., Shay, J.W., and Matsuura, Y. 1995. Telomerase activity in gastric cancer. Cancer Res. 55: 3258–3262.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Hiyama, E., Gollahon, L., Kataoka, T., Kuroi, K., Yokoyama, T., Gazdar, A.F., Hiyama, K., Piatyszek, M.A., and Shay, J.W. 1996. Telomerase activity in human breast tumors. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 88: 116–122.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Kim, N.W., Piatyszek, M.A., Prowse, K.R., Harley, C.B., West, M.D., Ho, P.L.C., Coviello, G.M., Wright, W.E., Weinrich, S.L. and Shay, J.W. 1994. Specific association of human telomerase activity with immortal cells and cancer. Science 266: 2011–2015.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Piatyszek, M.A., Kim, N.W., Weinrich, S.L., Hiyama, K., Hiyama, E., Wright, W.E., and Shay, J.W. 1995. Detection of telomerase activity in human cells and tumors by a telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP). Methods Cell Sci. 17: 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Dix, D. 1989. The role of aging in cancer incidence: an epidemiological study. J. Geron. Biol. Sci. 44: 10–18.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Peto, R., Roe, F.J.C., Lee, P.N., Levy, L., and Clack, J. 1975. Cancer and ageing in mice and men. Brit. J. Cancer 32: 411–426.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Blackburn, E.H. 1994. Telomeres: No end in sight. Cell 77: 621–623.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Greider, C.W. 1995. Mammalian telomere dynamics: healing fragmentation shortening and stabilization. Curr. Opin. Genet. and Dev. 4: 203–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Levy, M.Z., Allsopp, R.C., Futcher, A.B., Greider, C.W., and Harley, C.B. 1992. Telomere end-replication problem and cell aging. J. Mol. Biol. 225: 951–960.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Wright, W.E. and Shay, J.W. 1992. The two-stage mechanism controlling cellular senescence and immortalization. Exp. Geron. 27: 383–389.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Shay, J.W., Pereira-Smith, O., and Wright, W.E. 1991. A role for both Rb and p53 in the regulation of cellular senescence. Exp. Cell Res. 196: 33–39.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Hayflick, L. 1965. The limited in vitro lifetime of human diploid cell strains. Exp. Cell Res. 37: 614–636.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Holt, S.E., Wright, W.E., and Shay, J.W. 1996. Regulation of telomerase activity in immortal cell lines. Molec. Cell. Biol. 16: 2932–2939.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Sharma, H.W., Sokoloski, J.A., Perez, J.R., Maltese, J.Y., Sartorelli, A.C., Stein, C.A., Nichols, G., Khaled, Z., Telang, N.T., and Narayanan, R. 1995. Differentiation of immortal cells inhibits telomerase activity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92: 12343–12346.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Wright, W.E., Piatyszek, M.A., Rainey, W.E., Byrd, W. and Shay, J.W. 1996. Telomerase activity in human germline and embryonic tissues and cells. Devel. Genet. 18: 173–179.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Mantell, L.L. and Greider, C.W. 1994. Telomerase activity in germline and embryonic cells of Xenopus. EMBO J. 13: 3211–3217.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Zhang, W., Piatyszek, M.A., Kobayashi, T., Estey, E., Andreeff, M., Deisseroth, A.B., Wright, W.E., and Shay, J.W. 1996. Telomerase activity in human acute myelogenous leukemia: inhibition of telomerase activity by differentiation-inducing agents. Clin. Cancer Res. 2: 799–803.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Hastie, N.D., Dempster, M., Dunlop, M.G., Thompson, A.M., Green, D.K., and Allshire, R.C. 1990. Telomere reduction in human colorectal carcinoma and with ageing. Nature 346: 866–868.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Vaziri, H., Dragowska, W., Allsopp, R.C., Thomas, T.E., Harley, C.B., and Lansdorp, P.M. 1994. Evidence for a mitotic clock in human hematopoietic stem cells: loss of telomeric DNA with age. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91: 9857–9860.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Taylor, R.S., Ramirez, R.D., Ogoshi, M., Chaffins, M., Piatyszek, M.A., and Shay, J.W. 1996. Detection of telomerase activity in malignant and nonmalignant skin conditions. J. Invest. Dermatol. 106: 759–765.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Broccolli, D., Young, J.W., and de Lange, T. 1995. Telomerase activity in normal and malignant hematopoietic cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92: 9082–9086.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Bryan, T.M., Englezou, A., Gupta, J., Bacchetti, S., and Reddel, R.R. 1995. Telomere elongation in immortal human cells without detectable telomerase activity. EMBO J. 14: 4240–4248.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Murnane, J.R., Sabatier, L., Marder, B.A., and Morgan, W.F. 1994. Telomere dynamics in an immortal human cell line. EMBO J. 13: 4953–4962.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Lundblad, V. and Szostak, J.W. 1989. A mutant with a defect in telomere elongation leads to senescence in yeast. Cell 57: 633–643.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Singer, M.S. and Gottschling, D.E. TLC1: template RNA component of Saccharomyces cerevisiae telomerase. Science 266: 404–409 1994.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. McEachern, M.J. and Blackburn, E.H. 1995. Runaway telomere elongation caused by telomerase RNA gene mutations. Nature 376: 403–409.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Steiner, B.R., Hidaka, K., and Futcher, B. 1996. Association of the est1 protein with telomerase activity in yeast. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93: 2817–2821.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Lundblad, V. and Blackburn, E.H. 1993. An alternate pathway for yeast telomere maintenance rescues est1-senescence. Cell 73: 347–360.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Hiyama, E., Yokoyama, T., Hiyama, K., Yamakido, M., Santo, T., Kodama, T., Ichikawa, T., and Matsuura, Y. 1994. Alteration of telomeric repeat length in adult and childhood solid neoplasias. Int. J. Oncol. 6: 13–16.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Greaves, M. 1996. Telomerase activation, stem cells and cancer. Trends Genet. 12: 127–128.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Shay, J.W. and Wright, W.E. 1996. The reactivation of telomerase activity in cancer progression. Trends Genet. 12: 129–131.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Hooper, M.L. 1994. The role of p53 and Rb-1 genes in cancer, development and apoptosis. J. Cell Sci. 18: (suppl.) 13–17.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Hiyama, K., Ishioka, S., Shirotani, Y., Inai, K., Hiyama, E., Murakami, I., Isobe, T., Inamizu, T., and Yamakido, M. 1992. Alterations in telomeric repeat length in lung cancer are associated with loss of heterozygosity in p53 and pRB. Oncogene 10: 937–944.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Wynford-Thomas, D., Bond, J.A., Wyllie, F.S., and Jones, C.J. 1995. Does telomere shortening drive selection for p53 mutation in human cancer? Molec. Carcino. 12: 119–23.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Feng, J., Funk, W.D., Wang, S.-S., Weinrich, S.L., Avilion, A.A., Chiu, C.-P., Adams, R.R., Chang, E., Allsopp, R.C., Yu, J., Le, S., West, M.D., Harley, C.B., Andrews, W.H., Greider, C.W., and Villeponteau, B. 1995. The RNA component of human telomerase. Science 269: 1236–1241.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Avilion, A.A., Piatyszek, M.A., Gupta, J., Shay, J.W., Bacchetti, S., and Greider, C.W. 1996. Human telomerase RNA and telomerase activity in immortal cell lines and tumor tissues. Cancer Res. 56: 645–650.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Blasco, M.A., Rizen, M., Greider, C.W., and Hanahan, D. 1996. Differential regulation of telomerase activity and telomerase RNA during multi-stage-tumorigenesis. Nature Genet., 12: 200–204.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Wright, W.E., Shay, J.W. and Piatyszek, M.A. 1995. Modifications of a telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) result in increased reliability, linearity and sensitivity. Nuc. Acids Res. 23: 3794–3795.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Shay, J.W. 1995. Aging and cancer: Are telomeres and telomerase the connection?. Mol. Med. Today 1: 378–384.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Shay, J.W., and Wright, W.E. 1996. Telomerase activity in human cancer. Curr. Opin. Oncol. 8: 66–71.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Shay, J.W., Werbin, H., and Wright, W.E. 1996. Telomeres and telomerase in human leukemias. Leukemia. In press.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Holt, S., Shay, J. & Wright, W. Refining the telomere-telomerase hypothesis of aging and cancer. Nat Biotechnol 14, 836–839 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0796-836

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0796-836

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing