ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) to the proliferation of 5-HT induced pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The PASMCs proliferation experiment was performed to detect the effort on PASMCs of 5-HT or ASODN TERT (antisense oligoribonucleotides TERT designed according to the rat TERT mRNA sequence of gene bank). The immunohistochemistry staining experiment and the in situ hybridization experiment were to detect the TERT protein and mRNA expression with 5-HT or ASODN TERT. FITC marked ASODN TERT experiment was done to research the distribution of ASODN TERT in PASMCs.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>5-HT promoted PASMCs proliferation in a dose-dependent manner (10(-9) - 10(-5) mol/L). 5-HT also significantly increased TERT expression at protein and mRNA levels as shown by immunohistochemistry staining and the in situ hybridization studies. This effect could be blocked by ASODN TERT in a time and dose-dependent manner.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Our experiments show TERT is one of the key factors in the procession of 5-HT induced PASMCs proliferation. ASODN TERT might be a potential therapy agent for pulmonary hypertension.</p>