1. [Effects of sodium selenite on telomerase activity and telomere length].
- Author
-
Liu Q, Wang H, Hu DC, Ding CJ, Xiao H, Xu HB, Shu BH, and Xu SQ
- Subjects
- Cell Line, DNA-Binding Proteins, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic drug effects, Hepatocytes drug effects, Hepatocytes enzymology, Hepatocytes metabolism, RNA, Messenger drug effects, RNA, Messenger genetics, RNA, Messenger metabolism, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, Telomerase metabolism, Sodium Selenite pharmacology, Telomerase genetics
- Abstract
To study the biological basis of selenium in resisting senescence through its effects on cellular telomerase activity and telomere length. In the experiments, the cell line of hepatocytes L-02 was divided into three groups supplemented with sodium selenite at final concentrations of 0, 0.5 and 2.5 micromol/L, respectively. Cellular telomerase activity was measured by telomeric repeat amplification protocol and enzymatic luminometric inorganic pyrophosphate detection assay. RT-PCR was used to semi-quantitatively detect human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene expression. The change of telomere length was assayed through flow cytometry and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Results showed that L-02 cells had low telomerase activity and hTERT gene expression level when cultured in the normal way. The cells grew well after 3-week-cultivation in the media supplemented with 0.5 or 2.5 micromol/L sodium selenite. Besides, sodium selenite significantly increased cellular telomerase activity and hTERT gene expression level. The telomere length of L-02 cells was also extended after 4-week-cultivation with sodium selenite. Thus, sodium selenite at nutritional doses could prolong the life span of hepatocytes L-02 through increasing telomerase activity and telomere length. This result provides a possible mechanism for explaining the anti-senescence function of selenium.
- Published
- 2003