Banerjee P P, Banerjee S, Zirkin B R, Brown T R
Department of Population Dynamics, Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
Endocrinology. 1998 Mar;139(3):1075-81. doi: 10.1210/endo.139.3.5839.
Telomerase activity is essential for protection of cells against the telomere erosion that occurs with each round of cell replication, and thus appears to play a role in the indefinite replication potential of some, but not all, eukaryotic cells. In this regard, some tissues contain stem cells that have a long proliferative life-span and are capable of regenerating or renewing the somatic epithelial cell population within the tissue. Because the adult seminal vesicle exhibits the ability to regenerate during androgen-replacement after castration, we hypothesized that a pool of cells with regenerating potential is present in the adult seminal vesicle, which expresses telomerase activity. In this study, we used a highly sensitive PCR-based telomerase assay [the telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay] to detect telomerase activity in rat seminal vesicle. Our results show that telomerase activity is, indeed, present in the normal adult rat seminal vesicle, but that, in the presence of seminal vesicle fluid, telomerase activity cannot be detected. In fact, seminal vesicle fluid was found to contain some factor(s) that is inhibitory for the TRAP assay. In addition, we found that telomerase activity in the seminal vesicle changes with age and is regionally distributed within the distal, intermediate, and proximal segments of the duct. These results suggest that as is the case for the rat prostate, a population of telomerase-positive cells is present within the adult rat seminal vesicle, and thereby, this organ retains throughout life the potential to regenerate in response to androgen replacement following castration-induced apoptotic cell death.
端粒酶活性对于保护细胞免受每一轮细胞复制时发生的端粒侵蚀至关重要，因此似乎在一些（但不是所有）真核细胞的无限复制潜能中发挥作用。在这方面，一些组织含有具有长增殖寿命且能够在组织内再生或更新体细胞上皮细胞群体的干细胞。由于成年精囊在去势后的雄激素替代过程中表现出再生能力，我们推测成年精囊中存在一群具有再生潜能的细胞，这些细胞表达端粒酶活性。在本研究中，我们使用基于PCR的高灵敏度端粒酶检测方法[端粒重复序列扩增法（TRAP）检测]来检测大鼠精囊中的端粒酶活性。我们的结果表明，端粒酶活性确实存在于正常成年大鼠精囊中，但在存在精囊液的情况下，无法检测到端粒酶活性。事实上，发现精囊液中含有一些对TRAP检测有抑制作用的因子。此外，我们发现精囊中的端粒酶活性随年龄变化，并且在输精管的远端、中间和近端节段呈区域分布。这些结果表明，与大鼠前列腺的情况一样，成年大鼠精囊内存在一群端粒酶阳性细胞，因此，该器官在阉割诱导的凋亡性细胞死亡后，在整个生命过程中保留了对雄激素替代作出再生反应的潜能。
