Michael D. West

Shortened telomeres in the expanded CD28- CD8+ cell subset in HIV disease implicate replicative senescence in HIV pathogenesis

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that the expanded population of non-proliferative CD28-CD8+ T cells in HIV disease have shortened telomeres, thereby providing evidence that increased rounds of CD8+ cell division occur during HIV disease, possibly leading to replicative senescence and exhaustion of CD8+ T-cell responses. DESIGN CD8+ cells play a central role in control of HIV infection. In late HIV disease, an expanded population of CD28-CD8+ cells with reduced proliferative potential has been documented. A similar population of CD28-CD8+ cells has been identified in ageing humans, where telomere length measurements have suggested that these cells have reached the irreversible state of replicative senescence. METHODS CD8+ cells from HIV-infected and control subjects were sorted by flow cytometry into CD28+ and CD28- fractions. Telomere lengths were determined as mean terminal restriction fragment (TRF) lengths by Southern hybridization. RESULTS The TRF lengths of sorted CD28-CD8+ cells in HIV-infected subjects ranged between 5 and 7 kilobases (kb) and were significantly shorter than TRF lengths of CD28-CD8+ cells in uninfected subjects (P = 0.003). The TRF length in CD28-CD8+ cells from HIV-infected subjects was the same as that observed for centenarian peripheral blood mononuclear cells and is compatible with a state of replicative senescence. CONCLUSIONS The shortened telomeres in the CD28-CD8+ cells in HIV-infected subjects and the poor proliferative potential of these cells identifies CD8+ cell replicative senescence as a newly described feature of HIV disease. Our results provide a mechanism for the loss of CD8+ cell control of viral replication that accompanies advanced HIV disease. Replicative senescence may contribute to exhaustion of the T-cell response as a result of chronic HIV disease. Whether this phenomenon occurs in other chronic viral infections is unknown.

Human embryonic stem cells derived without feeder cells

BACKGROUND Human embryonic stem cells are likely to play an important role in the future of regenerative medicine. However, exposure of existing human embryonic stem-cell lines to live animal cells and serum risks contamination with pathogens that could lead to human health risks. We aimed to derive an embryonic stem-cell line without exposure to cells or serum. METHODS Frozen cleavage-stage embryos were thawed and cultured to the blastocyst stage. Inner cell masses were isolated by immunosurgery and plated onto extracellular-matrix-coated plates that can be easily sterilised. Six established human embryonic stem-cell lines were also maintained with this serum and feeder free culture system. FINDINGS A new stem-cell line was derived from human embryos under completely cell and serum free conditions. The cells maintained normal karyotype and markers of pluripotency, including octamer binding protein 4 (Oct-4), stage-specific embryonic antigen (SSEA)-3, SSEA-4, tumour-rejection antigen (TRA)-1-60, TRA-1-81, and alkaline phosphatase. After more than 6 months of undifferentiated proliferation, these cells retained the potential to form derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers both in vitro and in teratomas. These properties were also successfully maintained (for more than 30 passages) with the established stem-cell lines. INTERPRETATION This system eliminates exposure of human embryonic stem cells and their progeny to animal and human feeder layers, and thus the risk of contamination with pathogenic agents capable of transmitting diseases to patients.

ATM‐dependent telomere loss in aging human diploid fibroblasts and DNA damage lead to the post‐translational activation of p53 protein involving poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase

Telomere loss has been proposed as a mechanism for counting cell divisions during aging in normal somatic cells. How such a mitotic clock initiates the intracellular signalling events that culminate in G1 cell cycle arrest and senescence to restrict the lifespan of normal human cells is not known. We investigated the possibility that critically short telomere length activates a DNA damage response pathway involving p53 and p21WAF1 in aging cells. We show that the DNA binding and transcriptional activity of p53 protein increases with cell age in the absence of any marked increase in the level of p53 protein, and that p21WAF1 promoter activity in senescent cells is dependent on both p53 and the transcriptional co‐activator p300. Moreover, we detected increased specific activity of p53 protein in AT fibroblasts, which exhibit accelerated telomere loss and undergo premature senescence, compared with normal fibroblasts. We investigated the possibility that poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase is involved in the post‐translational activation of p53 protein in aging cells. We show that p53 protein can associate with PARP and inhibition of PARP activity leads to abrogation of p21 and mdm2 expression in response to DNA damage. Moreover, inhibition of PARP activity leads to extension of cellular lifespan. In contrast, hyperoxia, an activator of PARP, is associated with accelerated telomere loss, activation of p53 and premature senescence. We propose that p53 is post‐translationally activated not only in response to DNA damage but also in response to the critical shortening of telomeres that occurs during cellular aging.

Cloning of an Endangered Species (Bos gaurus) Using Interspecies Nuclear Transfer

Approximately 100 species become extinct a day. Despite increasing interest in using cloning to rescue endangered species, successful interspecies nuclear transfer has not been previously described, and only a few reports of in vitro embryo formation exist. Here we show that interspecies nuclear transfer can be used to clone an endangered species with normal karyotypic and phenotypic development through implantation and the late stages of fetal growth. Somatic cells from a gaur bull (Bos gaurus), a large wild ox on the verge of extinction, (Species Survival Plan < 100 animals) were electrofused with enucleated oocytes from domestic cows. Twelve percent of the reconstructed oocytes developed to the blastocyst stage, and 18% of these embryos developed to the fetal stage when transferred to surrogate mothers. Three of the fetuses were electively removed at days 46 to 54 of gestation, and two continued gestation longer than 180 (ongoing) and 200 days, respectively. Microsatellite marker and cytogenetic analyses confirmed that the nuclear genome of the cloned animals was gaurus in origin. The gaur nuclei were shown to direct normal fetal development, with differentiation into complex tissue and organs, even though the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) within all the tissue types evaluated was derived exclusively from the recipient bovine oocytes. These results suggest that somatic cell cloning methods could be used to restore endangered, or even extinct, species and populations.

Replicative senescence of human skin fibroblasts correlates with a loss of regulation and overexpression of collagenase activity

The atrophy of extracellular matrix is a common event during the aging of connective tissues. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the altered ability of senescent cells to be modulated by serum growth factors correlated with a loss of regulation of collagenase synthesis. We examined the levels of immunoreactive procollagenase and collagenase inhibitor (the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases, TIMP) associated with young and senescent fibroblasts cultured in vitro. Young fibroblasts cultured in low (0.5%) concentrations of fetal bovine serum respond to increased (10%) serum by increasing levels of procollagenase and TIMP beginning 4.0 h after serum stimulation. In contrast, senescent fibroblasts constitutively produce relatively high levels of procollagenase even when cultured in low levels of serum and do not respond to serum stimulation by increasing procollagenase synthesis. In addition, senescent fibroblasts constitutively express a relatively small amount of TIMP which is not induced upon serum stimulation. This altered expression of collagenase and TIMP appears unique to the senescent phenotype and not merely a result of growth inhibition, since young cells growth arrested by density-dependent growth inhibition displayed a temporal pattern of procollagenase and TIMP expression upon serum stimulation similar to that of subconfluent young cultures. An assay of net collagenase activity revealed a greater than 20-fold elevation of activity in trypsin-activated extracts from senescent versus young fibroblasts when cultured in a low concentration of fetal bovine serum. These results demonstrate for the first time a direct correlation between alterations in the molecular pathways regulating connective tissue homeostasis and those of replicative senescence. The increased collagenolytic activity of senescent compared to young fibroblasts cultured in the presence of a low serum concentration suggests that aging fibroblasts may become increasingly fibroclastic causing many of the age-associated alterations in dermal collagen observed during aging in vivo.

Prospects for the use of nuclear transfer in human transplantation

The successful application of nuclear transfer techniques to a range of mammalian species has brought the possibility of human therapeutic cloning significantly closer. The objective of therapeutic cloning is to produce pluripotent stem cells that carry the nuclear genome of the patient and then induce them to differentiate into replacement cells, such as cardiomyocytes to replace damaged heart tissue or insulin-producing β cells for patients with diabetes. Although cloning would eliminate the critical problem of immune incompatibility, there is also the task of reconstituting the cells into more complex tissues and organs in vitro. In the review, we discuss recent progress that has been made in this field as well as the inherent dangers and scientific challenges that remain before these techniques can be used to harness genetically matched cells and tissues for human transplantation.

Altered expression of plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor during cellular senescence

Fibroblast senescence is associated with a loss of proliferative potential and an alteration in extracellular gene expression. Because the expression of extracellular gene products are frequently growth state dependent, we undertook a comparative study of the regulation of the components of the plasminogen activation system in young and senescent cells under controlled conditions of growth. Young and senescent cells were compared in quiescent and activated growth conditions for the secretion of tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA), urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2). Whereas young cells showed decreased levels of PAI-1 in the secreted and extracellular matrix pools upon serum deprivation, senescent cells showed a more constitutive pattern of gene expression, with no noticeable decrease of the levels in a low concentration of serum. RNA analysis revealed that senescent lung and skin cells, independent of the growth state, constitutively express levels of u-PA and PAI-1 comparable to the expression levels in young mitotically growing cells. These expression levels are down-regulated in quiescent young cells. In contrast, both t-PA and PAI-2 were markedly overexpressed in senescent skin lung cells under all growth conditions. Total plasminogen activator activity in conditioned medium was 50-fold higher in senescent-cell medium compared to young when cultured in 0.5% fetal calf serum (FCS) for five days, with the majority of the activity co-migrating on zymograms with u-PA. Increases in PAI-1 was also observed in senescent human umbilical vein endothelial cells. In summary, cells of various types display alterations in plasminogen activator activity during replicative senescence. The inappropriate over-expression of plasminogen activator activity in vivo may be expected to lead to a progressive disruption of extracellular matrix maintenance. Thus, our observations suggest that cellular replicative senescence is associated with an altered expression of several genes regulating tissue maintenance which, in turn, could lead to degenerative changes in tissue in age-related disease(s).

ENZYMES IN ANEMIA: A STUDY OF ABNORMALITIES OF SEVERAL ENZYMES OF CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM IN THE PLASMA AND ERYTHOCYTES IN PATIENTS WITH ANEMIA, WITH PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS OF BONE MARROW ENZYMES

Excerpt Several published studies1, 2, 3, 4have shown that patients with megaloblastic anemia have markedly elevated serum levels of lactic dehydrogenase. The sera of patients with sickle cell anem...

Rapid Communication: Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer in Humans: Pronuclear and Early Embryonic Development

Human therapeutic cloning requires the reprogramming of a somatic cell by nuclear transfer to generate autologous totipotent stem cells. We have parthenogenetically activated 22 human eggs and also performed nuclear transfer in 17 metaphase II eggs. Cleavage beyond the eight-cell stage was obtained in the parthenogenetic-activated eggs, and blastocoele cavities were observed in six. Three somatic cell-derived embryos developed beyond the pronuclear stage up to the six-cell stage. The ability to create autologous embryos represents the first step towards generating immune-compatible stem cells that could be used to overcome the problem of immune rejection in regenerative medicine.

Pulmonary Hemosiderosis and Glomerulonephritis

Excerpt Until recently, idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis has been described mainly in children (1-3). Significant renal disease has not been observed in these patients. Some of the adult patients...