Role of Telomerase in the Cardiovascular System.
Author: Zurek M1, Altschmied J2, Kohlgrüber S3, Ale-Agha N4, Haendeler J5,6
Affiliation:
1IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany. mark.zurek@uni-duesseldorf.de.
2IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany. joachim.altschmied@uni-duesseldorf.de.
3IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany. stefanie@gonnissen.de.
4IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany. niloofar.ale-agha@uni-duesseldorf.de.
5IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany. juhae001@uni-duesseldorf.de.
6Central Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Medical Faculty, University of Duesseldorf, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany. juhae001@uni-duesseldorf.de.
Conference/Journal: Genes (Basel).
Date published: 2016 Jun 17
Other:
Volume ID: 7 , Issue ID: 6 , Word Count: 155
Aging is one major risk factor for the incidence of cardiovascular diseases and the development of atherosclerosis. One important enzyme known to be involved in aging processes is Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT). After the discovery of the enzyme in humans, TERT had initially only been attributed to germ line cells, stem cells and cancer cells. However, over the last few years it has become clear that TERT is also active in cells of the cardiovascular system including cardiac myocytes, endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts. Interference with the activity of this enzyme greatly contributes to cardiovascular diseases. This review will summarize the findings on the role of TERT in cardiovascular cells. Moreover, recent findings concerning TERT in different mouse models with respect to cardiovascular diseases will be described. Finally, the extranuclear functions of TERT will be covered within this review.
KEYWORDS: Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase; aging; cardiovascular cells
PMID: 27322328 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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