In the majority of human
malignancies, maintenance of telomeres is achieved by reactivation of
telomerase, whereas a smaller fraction uses an alternative telomere lengthening (ALT) mechanism. Here, we used 16
non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines to investigate telomere stabilization mechanisms and their effect on
tumor aggressiveness. Three of 16 NSCLC cell lines (VL-9, SK-LU-1, and VL-7) lacked
telomerase activity, correlating with significantly reduced tumorigenicity in vitro and in vivo. Of the three
telomerase-negative cell lines, only SK-LU-1 displayed characteristics of an ALT mechanism (i.e., highly heterogeneous telomeres and ALT-associated promyelocytic
leukemia bodies). VL-9 cells gained
telomerase during in vitro propagation, indicating incomplete immortalization in vivo. In contrast, NSCLC
metastasis-derived VL-7 cells remained
telomerase and ALT negative up to high passage numbers and following
transplantation in severe combined immunodeficient mice. Telomeres of VL-7 cells were homogeneously short, and
chromosomal instability (CIN) was comparable with most
telomerase-positive cell lines. This indicates the presence of an efficient telomere stabilization mechanism different from
telomerase and ALT in VL-7 cells. To test the effect of ectopic
telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) in these unique ALT- and
telomerase-negative
tumor backgrounds, hTERT was transfected into VL-7 cells. The activation of
telomerase led to an excessively rapid gain of telomeric sequences resulting in very long ( approximately 14 kb), uniform telomeres. Additionally, hTERT expression induced a more aggressive growth behavior in vitro and in vivo without altering the level of CIN. These data provide further evidence for a direct oncogenic activity of hTERT not based on the inhibition of CIN.