Telomerase downregulation in cancer brain stem cell

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a minute sub-population of self-renewing, immortal cells, which can be responsible for chemoresistance observed in the treatment of cancer. CSCs are similar to cancer cells requiring telomerase activity or alternative mechanisms for their proliferation and regeneration. This study explored the correlation between CD133 (stem cell marker) and telomerase expression using CD133+ cells isolated from the glioma GOS-3 cell line with magnetic affinity cell sorting (MACS). GOS-3 CD133+ showed a transcription downregulation of hTERT (≈100-fold decrease) compared with CD133− cells. In order to further substantiate the novel finding, serum deprivation was adopted to enrich CD133 expression in GOS-3 cells. A pronounced upregulation of cd133 and downregulation of telomerase expression were produced as a consequence of decreasing serum supplement levels in GOS-3 cells. These findings showed for the first time that telomerase is downregulated in brain cancer stem cells compared to cancer cells.