Telomerase Activity in Chicken Embryo Fibroblast Cell Cultures Infected with Marek's Disease Virus

Motamedifar, Mohammad; Tannock, Gregory A.

Telomerase Activity in Chicken Embryo Fibroblast Cell Cultures Infected with Marek's Disease Virus

Document Type : Original Article(s)

Authors

Mohammad Motamedifar ¹

Gregory A. Tannock ²

¹ Department of Bacteriology and Virology, Shiraz HIV/AIDS Research Center (SHARC), Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

² Department of Applied Biology and Biotechnology, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

Background: Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein, which adds telomeric repeats onto the 3’ end of existing telomers at the end of chromosomes in eukaryotes. One hypothesis states that telomere length may function as a mitotic clock, therefore expression of telomerase activity in cancer cells may be a necessary and essential step for tumor development and progression.Methods: The detectability of telomerase activity in chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells infected with different passages of Marek's disease virus (MDV) was tested with the TRAPEZE® telomerase detection kit at passages 14 (P14), P80/1 and P120 for the Woodland strain, and passage 9 (P9) for the MPF57 strain.Results: The results showed increased telomerase activity in MDV Woodlands strain at P14 and MPF57 strain at P9.Conclusion: Our results suggest that MDV-transformed cells at low passage are a suitable system for the study of telomerases in tumor development and for testing telomerase-inhibiting drugs.