Telomere elongation through hTERT immortalisation leads to chromosome repositioning in control cells and genomic instability in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria syndrome fibroblasts, expressing a novel SUN1 isoform.

Immortalising primary cells with hTERT has been common practice to enable primary cells to be of extended use in the laboratory since they avoid replicative senescence. Studying exogenously expressed hTERT in cells also affords scientists models of early carcinogenesis and telomere behaviour. Control and the premature ageing disease - Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome primary dermal fibroblasts, with and without the classical G608G mutation have been immortalised with exogenous hTERT. However, hTERT immortalisation surprisingly elicits genome reorganisation, in disease cells but also in the normal control cells, such that whole chromosome territories normally located at the nuclear periphery in proliferating fibroblasts become mis-localised in the nuclear interior. This includes chromosome 18 in the control fibroblasts and both chromosomes 18 and X in HGPS cells, which physically express an isoform of the LINC complex protein SUN1 that has previously only been theoretical. Additionally, this HGPS cell line has also become genomically unstable and has a tetraploid karyotype, which could be due to the novel SUN1 isoform. Long term treatment with the hTERT inhibitor BIBR1532 enabled the reduction of telomere length in the immortalised cells and resulted in these mis-localised internal chromosomes to be located at the nuclear periphery, as assessed in actively proliferating cells. Taken together, these findings reveal that elongated telomeres lead to dramatic chromosome mis-localisation, which can be restored with a drug treatment that results in telomere re-shortening and that a novel SUN1 isoform combined with elongated telomeres leads to genomic instability. Thus, care should be taken when interpreting data from genomic studies in hTERT immortalised cell lines. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.