Telomerase, a ribonucleic acid-protein complex, adds hexameric repeats of 5'-TTAGGG-3' to the ends of mammalian chromosomal DNA (telomeres) to compensate for the progressive loss that occurs with successive rounds of DNA replication. Although somatic cells do not express telomerase, germ cells and immortalized cells, including neoplastic cells, express this activity. To determine whether the phenotypic differentiation of immortalized cells is linked to the regulation of telomerase activity, terminal differentiation was induced in leukemic cell lines by diverse agents. A pronounced downregulation of telomerase activity was produced as a consequence of the differentiated status. The differentiation-inducing agents did not directly inhibit telomerase activity, suggesting that the inhibition of telomerase activity is in response to induction of differentiation. The loss of telomerase activity was not due to the production of an inhibitor, since extracts from differentiated cells did not cause inhibition of telomerase activity. By using additional cell lineages including epithelial and embryonal stem cells, downregulation of telomerase activity was found to be a general response to the induction of differentiation. These findings provide the first direct link between telomerase activity and terminal differentiation and may provide a model to study regulation of telomerase activity.The ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, called telomeres, consist of an array of tandem repeats of the hexanucleotide 5'-TTAGGG-3'. It is currently assumed that telomeres were evolved to protect the ends of chromosomes against exonucleases and ligases, to prevent the activation of DNA-damage checkpoints, and to counter the loss of terminal DNA segments that occurs when linear DNA is replicated (for a review, see refs.

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex that is thought to add telomeric repeats onto the ends of chromosomes during the replicative phase of the cell cycle. We tested this hypothesis by arresting human tumor cell lines at different stages of the cell cycle. Induction of quiescence by serum deprivation did not affect telomerase activity. Cells arrested at the G1/S phase of the cell cycle showed similar levels of telomerase to asynchronous cultures; progression through the S phase was associated with increased telomerase activity. The

The Na+-dependent transport and facilitated diffusion of uridine were measured after differentiation of HL-60 leukaemia cells along the monocytic pathway by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA). PMA (200 ng/ml) caused a marked increase in Na+-dependent uridine transport within 48 h of exposure that was attributable to an increase in transport affinity (apparent Km values of 1.15 + 0.22 and 44 + 4.4 gM for PMA-induced and uninduced cells respectively), with no change in Vmax (0.15 + 0.02 and 0.13 + 0.01 pmol/s per ,1u of cell water for PMA-induced and uninduced cells respectively). A corresponding rapid decrease in both the rate of facilitated diffusion and the formation of uracil nucleotides occurred in PMA-induced cells. As a consequence of these changes, intracellular pools of uridine 3-4-fold greater than those in the medium were generated. A similar increase in Na+-dependent transport of adenosine, inosine, guanosine, thymidine and cytidine (Km values of 1-4 #M) was observed. The effects of PMA on the activation of the Na+-dependent uridine transporter were inhibited by staurosporine, suggesting the involvement of protein kinase C. The findings indicate that a change in the balance of the cellular mechanisms employed for nucleoside transport occurs during the monocytic differentiation of HL-60 leukaemia cells.

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