Telomere Dynamics in Macaques and Humans

Abstract

In humans, telomere length in proliferating tissues shortens with age--a process accelerated with age-related diseases. Thus, telomere length and attrition with age in the nonhuman primate may serve as a useful paradigm for understanding telomere biology in humans. We examined telomere parameters in tissues of young and old Macaca fascicularis and compared them with several tissues from humans. Macaque telomeres were variable in length and exhibited partial synchrony (equivalence) within animals. They were longer than humans, partially because of longer subtelomeric segments. As skeletal muscle telomere length was unchanged with age, we used it as an internal reference to offset interanimal variation in telomere length. We identified age-dependent telomere attrition in lung, pancreas, skin, and thyroid. Similar to humans, telomerase activity was detected in spleen, thymus, digestive tract, and gonads. We conclude that factors that modify telomere attrition and aging in humans may also operate in the macaque.

Telomere Length in Peripheral Blood Predicts Survival in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

“…Furthermore, telomeres in the kidney cortex were significantly longer compared with peripheral blood, suggesting differences in the replicative history of the cells and/or differences in telomere length regulation. Previous studies have shown a correlation between telomere length in different organs in both humans and monkeys (21,22), which was supported by our data on blood and nonmalignant kidney tissue. In addition, we found a surprising correlation between RTL in these compartments and tumor tissue.…”

Coevolution of telomerase activity and body mass in mammals: From mice to beavers

“…The tissue distribution of telomerase activity in several species of Macaques (rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta), Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata), and crab-eating monkey (Macaca fascicularis)) is similar to humans. Telomerase is repressed in most somatic tissues; low activity is detected in spleen, thymus, and digestive tract, with high activity found in testes (Kakuo et al, 1999;Gardner et al, 2007). Primate telomeres have been reported to be 15-23 kb, which is somewhat longer than in human cells (Kakuo et al, 1999).…”

“…However, more recent studies reported telomere lengths from 4 to 16 kb in a few New World primates: spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi), and squirrel monkey (Saimiri scuireus), and in several Old World primates: rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta), orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), and pigmy chimpanzee (Pan paniscus) (Steinert et al, 2002), which are similar to human (Moyzis et al, 1988). The difference may be explained by a longer subtelomeric region in non-human primates (Gardner et al, 2007).…”

Leukocyte Telomere Length in Relation to Pancreatic Cancer Risk: A Prospective Study

“…Genetic studies have shown that the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene, an enzyme that is fundamental for the accurate de novo synthesis of telomeric ends, is one of the few identified risk loci for pancreatic cancer (8) as well as other tumor types (21). There is evidence pointing to a strong correlation in telomere length across somatic tissues and suggesting that the variability across cell and tissue types is remarkably lower than the interindividual variability of LTL (22)(23)(24), and natural rates of telomere shortening with age appear to follow a pattern of remarkable synchrony across different somatic tissue types (25). These observations identify LTL as a good proxy for overall telomere length and therefore a possibly useful marker for cancer risk.…”