Telomeres and telomerase: new targets for the treatment of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma

A Lechel, MP Manns, KL Rudolph - Journal of hepatology, 2004 - Elsevier
Telomeres form the ends of eukoryotic chromosomes. The main function of telomeres is to
stabilise chromosome ends thus to prevent chromosomal instability (CIS) and activation of
DNA damage response. Telomere shortening due to the end replication problem of DNA
polymerase limits the proliferative capacity of human cells to 50–70 cell doublings. The
holoenzyme telomerase prevents ongoing telomere shortening by de novo synthesis of
telomere repeats. However, in humans, postnatal telomerase expression is suppressed in …