Tuberculin purified protein derivative up-regulates the telomerase activity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Telomerase activity was detectable in cells of tuberculous pleural effusions at high percentage. To investigate the possible role of telomerase in the immune function, we examined the proliferating state and the expression of telomerase activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 13 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and 13 healthy volunteers in response to tuberculin purified protein derivative (PPD) challenge. Exposure of cells to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) significantly promoted PBMC proliferation during a 6 day-period in both TB patient and healthy volunteer groups. PPD treatment also significantly promoted PBMC proliferation during a 6 day-period in TB patient group, but had no significant effect in healthy volunteer group. During the same period, telomerase activity was detected in every PHA- and PPD-treated samples of the TB patient group. However, the telomerase activity was not detected in PPD- treated samples from healthy donors and all the untreated samples. Our results indicate that the telomerase activity in PBMC could be induced by PPD stimulation in TB patients. Telomerase activity may thus play a permissive role in cell division and clonal expansion of the immune cells in response to TB.