Telomere uncapping during in vitro T-lymphocyte senescence

Normal lymphocytes represent examples of somatic cells that are able to induce telomerase activity when stimulated. As previously reported, we showed that, during lymphocyte long-term culture and repeated stimulations, the appearance of senescent cells is associated with telomere shortening and a progressive drop in telomerase activity. We further showed that this shortening preferentially occured at long telomeres and was interrupted at each stimulation by a transitory increase in telomere length. In agreement with the fact that telomere uncapping triggers lymphocyte senescence, we observed an increase in γ-H2AX and 53BP1 foci as well as in the percentage of cells exhibiting DNA damage foci in telomeres. Such a DNA damage response may be related to the continuous increase of p16 ^ink4a upon cell stimulation and cell aging. Remarkably, at each stimulation, the expression of shelterin genes, such as hTRF1 , hTANK1 , hTIN2 , hPOT1 and hRAP1 , was decreased. We propose that telomere dysfunction during lymphocyte senescence caused by iterative stimulations does not only result from an excessive telomere shortening, but also from a decrease in shelterin content. These observations may be relevant for T-cell biology and aging.