2.5. Determination of telomerase activity by conventional TRAP assay
Telomerase activity was assayed following telomere repeat amplification
protocol (TRAP) (Piatyszek et al., 1995) using a TRAPeze kit
(Chemicon) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. The autoradiographs
of the PCR products were viewed following electrophoresis in
10% non-denaturing polyacrylamide at 800–1000 V (Sambrook and
Russell, 2001).
2.6. Gene expression arrays
HeLa cellswere seeded in 6well plates in DMEMcontaining 10% FBS
and transfection was performed in three independent sets with
100 pmol siRNA hTERT, scrambled siRNA and shRNA–hTERT using lipofectamine
2000. Total RNAwas harvested 72 h after transfection using a
Qiagen kit. Affymetrix microarray (PrimeView™ Human Gene Expression
Array chip) hybridization was performed with the help of iLife
Discoveries.