J Korean Cancer Assoc.
2000 Aug;32(4):724-733.
Changes of Telomerase Activity by Protein Kinase C
Modulators in Human Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
- 2Department ofMolecular Genetic Laboratory,
College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
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PURPOSE: This study was designed to find out whether protein kinase C (PKC) may affect
telomerase activity in human ovarian cancers.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
To determine whether PKC modulators influence PKC activities, NIH:
OVCAR-3 and CUMO-2, cells were treated with PKC inhibitors, G 6976 and bisindolyl
maleimide I, and PKC activator, 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol 13-acetate (TPA). Telomerase acti
vity was determined by telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP). Analysis of the expres
sion of each telomerase subunits, human telomerase RNA (hTR) and human telomerase reverse
transcriptase (hTERT), was performed by RT-PCR. We also examined the alternative splicing
of hTERT.
RESULTS
G 6976 and bisindolylmaleimide I inhibited PKC activity. Telomerase activities
appeared to be affected in a time-dependent manner by these two PKC inhibitors. PKC activities
were increased in parallel with telomerase activity by TPA at the low dose (10 nM), but their
activities were down-regulated at the high dose (1 micrometer). RT-PCR demonstrated the presence of
hTR and hTERT mRNA before and after the treatment of PKC modulators, respectively, and
showed the presence of one alternatively spliced transcript and full-length hTERT transcripts.
CONCLUSION
These results showed that telomerase activity was affected by PKC and suggested
PKC modulation may serve as an useful tool in the regulation of telomerase activity.