Sinusoidal swinging dynamics of the telomere repair and cell growth activation functions of telomerase in rat liver cancer cells.

Telomerase is a multimolecular complex of reverse transcriptase, RNA template, and regulatory proteins. It has two known functions: catalysis of the addition of [TTAGGG] repeats to telomeric DNA and the activation of various genes controlling cell proliferation. The possible coordination of these two functions is a key issue in understanding the growth of cancer cells. We report long-term changes to this complex system, as shown by specific data analysis methods. We show that the dynamics of the two functions of telomerase are tightly linked, with a change in predominant function every 13-14 weeks. The conservative behavior of this dynamic system probably accounts for the persistent proliferation of cancer cells.