Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein enzyme capable of synthesizing telomeric repeats, attracts attention for its possible role in determining the replicative capacity of normal somatic cells, transformed cells, and cells of the germline lineage. Differently from normal somatic cells with no telomerase activity, normal lymphocytes has been reported to have telomerase activity comparable to that found in transformed cells during development and activation, which substantiate a role in supporting the capacity of lymphocytes for extensive clonal expansion.

Here, in order to define the telomerase regulation in murine T lymphocytes, telomerase activity in cloned murine CD8⁺ T cells and naïve CD8⁺ T cells isolated from C57BL/6 mice was examined. Next, the regulatory mechanism of telomerase activity at transcriptional and post-translational levels was investigated by determining the expression level of the TERT protein, a key component for telomerase activity.

It was demonstrated that telomerase activity was expressed in an inactivated state as well as in an activated state in the murine CD8⁺ T lymphocytes by using TRAP assay. The increase of telomerase activity was partially dependent on the net increase of TERT expression. Also, telomerase activity was decreased after treatment with protein kinase inhibitors, indicating that telomerase activation was prevented by inhibition of phosphorylation.

Therefore, these results suggest that telomerase activity is constitutively expressed in the murine resting T lymphocytes and controlled by both transcriptional regulation and post-translational modifications.