Visit our Expo - Redox and Inflammation signaling 2012

Session X : Cell death in cancer Poster X, 72
Oxidative stress response in telomerized human fibroblasts from a centenarian
Chiara Mondello1, Maria Grazia Bottone1,2, Sakon Noriki3, Cristiana Soldani2, Carlo
Pellicciari2, A. Ivana Scovassi1
1 Istituto di Genetica Molecolare del CNR, Via Abbiategrasso 207, 27100 Pavia, Italy, Email:
mondello@igm.cnr.it, scovassi@igm.cnr.it; 2 Dipartimento di Biologia Animale,
Piazza Botta 10, 27100, Pavia, Italy. E-mail: bottone@unipv.it, soldani@unipv.it,
pelli@unipv.it; 3 Department of Oncological Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Matsuoka,
Yoshida-Gun, 9l0-ll93, Fukui, Japan. E-mail: noriki@fmsrsa.fukui-med.ac.jp
It has been reported that cells with ectopic expression of telomerase (so-called telomerized)
are more resistant to apoptotic cell death than their normal counterpart. However,
controversial results have been obtained as to the response of telomerized cells to the
oxidative stress. In the present research, we investigated the effects of the treatment with
either tert-butylhydroperoxide (tBOOH) or 2-deoxy-D-ribose (D-ribose) on human fibroblasts
from a centenarian individual (cen3) and on their counterpart with reactivated telomerase
(cen3tel). Our results suggest that the effects of these drugs are modulated by telomerase
reactivation. In fact, after drug treatment the cell number of both cell lines was lower than in
controls, indicating that both agents impaired cell proliferation; remarkably, proliferation was
always inhibited at a larger extent in cen3tel than in cen3 cells. Different parameters of
apoptosis were also studied in situ (i.e., chromatin condensation, phosphatidylserine
externalization, and DNA fragmentation) and showed that the percentage of apoptotic cells
was lower in telomerized cell cultures, although apoptosis could not completely account for
the observed cell loss in treated cultures. The evidence of active phagocytosis of apoptotic
cells occurring in our fibroblast cultures provides an explanation for these contradictory
results.
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