Enhanced long-term survival, but no increase in replicative capacity, following retroviral transduction of human cord blood CD34+ cells with human telomerase reverse transcriptase

Abstract

Overexpression of telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) can immortalize some primary human mesenchymal cells. We investigated whether retrovirally-mediated expression of hTERT in CD34+ umbilical cord blood (UCB) cells can extend the replicative lifespan of human hematopoietic progenitor cells. Overexpression of hTERT did not immortalize these cells but did lead to enhanced survival of mature hematopoietic cells.