Investigation of gene expression level of the hTERT gene and telomer length changes in acute lymphoblasic leukemia cell line (Molt-4) following co-culture with mesenchymal stem cells

Abstract

Introduction: The loss of telomere length is one of the genetic instability mechanisms that play an essential role in cellular life expectancy. However, in many types of cancer cells, telomerase enzyme expression is higher than in normal cells. Therefore, by targeting the telomerase gene and reducing its expression, the telomere sequence's regeneration during cell division is prevented, and cell death would occur. Besides developing numerous telomerase inhibitor drugs and gene therapy strategies, cell therapy is the center of attention in cancer therapies in current years. It has been shown that the production of the inhibitory cytokines at the tumor site by stem cells has a promising effect on cancer therapy. Therefore, assessing the impact of mesenchymal stem cells on hTERT gene expression and telomere length has been investigated in this study. Objective: The present study set to investigate hTERT gene expression and telomere length changes in an acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line (Molt-4) following co-culture with mesenchymal stem cells. Materials and Methods: In the current study, adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells were co-cultured with acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line (Molt-4) using special Transwell plates for 7 days. At the end of the co-culture period, the Molt-4 cell line's RNA and DNA were extracted and analyzed by the real-time PCR method to evaluate the telomerase expression level and the telomere length. Results: The results indicated that the hTERT gene expression and telomere length of Molt-4 cells significantly declined following co-culture with mesenchymal stem cells compared with the control group (*p<0.05 and **p<0.01, respectively). Conclusion: The findings indicate that mesenchymal stem cells have inhibitory effects on hTERT gene expression and telomere length; consequently, they could have an inhibitory effect on acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells.