What is telomerase?

Telomerase, an enzyme responsible for telomere lengthening in cells, is a basic nuclear protein reverse transcriptase that adds telomeric DNA to the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes to fill in telomeres lost to DNA replication, allowing telomere repair and lengthening, which allows telomeres not to be depleted by cell division, making the number of cell divisions increase.

Telomeres play an important role in maintaining chromosome stability and cellular activity in cells of different species, and telomerase lengthens shortened telomeres (shortened telomeres have limited cellular replication), thereby enhancing cell proliferation in vitro.

In normal human cells, telomerase activity is rather tightly regulated, and active telomerase can only be detected in hematopoietic cells, stem cells and germ cells, which must divide continuously. As cells differentiate and mature, they must take care of the needs of the different tissues in the body, each in its own way, and the telomerase activity gradually disappears.

Telomerase is an enzyme composed of a catalytic protein and an RNA template that synthesizes DNA at the ends of chromosomes, conferring immortality to cell replication.