Furthermore, in this study, the bell region that did not contain gonads
was used for telomerase assay and was shown to have telomerase
activity. The telomerase activity of somatic tissues may be due to the
presence of stem cells (interstitial cells) with telomerase activity
throughout the body of the polyp and medusa. Alternatively somatic
cells other than stem cells may possess telomerase activity in Cassiopea.
Koziol et al. (1998) detected telomerase activity in somatic cells of
the sponge Suberites domuncula.