Vol.26 No.5（2004 October）：513-515

Telomere Position Effect and Human Senescence

Yan Gong, Dian-Chun Fang*

（Department of Gastroenterology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China）

Abstract: As cells divide, telomeres get shorter and shorter. Telomeric sequences' shortening limits cancer progression and contributes to aging in humans. In addition, telomeres have special phenomena: the expression of genes near telomeres are silenced by telomere position effect (TPE) originally found in yeast. Recently, it has been demonstrated in human cells and found that many factors are involved. TPE may play an important role in programmed gene expression by telomere shortening with implications for cellular senescence and cancer.

Key words: telomere; telomere position effect; senescence

*Corresponding author. Tel/Fax: 86-23-68754124, E-mail: fangdianchun@hotmail.com