The reactivation of telomerase in cancer cells remains incompletely understood. The catalytic component of telomerase, hTERT, is thought to be the limiting component in cancer cells for the formation of active enzymes. hTERT gene expression is regulated at several levels including chromatin, DNA methylation, transcription factors, and RNA processing events. Of these regulatory events, RNA processing has received little attention until recently. RNA processing and alternative splicing regulation have been explored to understand how hTERT is regulated in cancer cells. The cis- and trans-acting factors that regulate the alternative splicing choice of hTERT in the reverse transcriptase domain have been investigated. Further, it was discovered that the splicing factors that promote the production of full-length hTERT were also involved in cancer cell growth and survival. The goals are to review telomerase regulation via alternative splicing and the function of hTERT splicing variants and to point out how bioinformatics approaches are leading the way in elucidating the networks that regulate hTERT splicing choice and ultimately cancer growth.

E percentage of monocytes expressing CD16, a receptor that enhances LPS stimulated TNF-α production. Therefore, we examined whether maximal treadmill exercise would alter the inflammatory phenotype of classical (CD14+/CD16−) and proinflammatory monocytes (intermediate [CD14++/CD16+] and nonclassical [CD14+/CD16++]), evidenced by changes in TLR4, CD14, and CD16 receptor expression, and their inflammatory response to ex vivo LPS stimulation. Methods Human mononuclear cells from 25 male participants (age, 24.2 ± 4.0 yr) were isolated before and after exercise to assess TLR4, CD14, and CD16 expression by flow cytometry and ex vivo production of LPS-stimulated inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α). Results Exercise reduced the percentage of classical monocytes and increased the percentage of intermediate and nonclassical monocytes. In addition, TLR4 expression decreased on classical and intermediate monocytes, but not the nonclassical monocyte subset. Furthermore, although CD14 expression decreased on all monocyte subsets, CD16 expression increased on intermediate monocytes only. In parallel with these phenotypic changes, the inflammatory milieu shifted toward a proinflammatory response after LPS stimulation (decreased IL-6 and IL-10 and increased IL-6 to IL-10 ratio and TNF-α production). Conclusions These findings demonstrate that acute maximal exercise elicits a proinflammatory phenotype of isolated monocytes exposed to LPS and highlight potential mechanisms that will help elucidate the role of acute and chronic exercise on the innate immune response of circulating monocytes....