The Bazhen decoction facilitated the telomere elongation
The above data indicate that Bazhen decoction could facilitate the
resolving of G4 structure, which is known to be abundant structure in
telomere DNA, thus Bazhen decoction might facilitate telomere DNA
replication and elongation. To verify this, we performed real-time PCR
to compare the relative amount of telomere DNA before and after Bazhen
decoction treatment. The results showed that the telomere DNA increased
significantly after Bazhen decoction treatment (p<0.01)
(Figure 5, A). We further performed immunofluorescence together with
fluorescence in situ hybridization (IF-FISH) to detect the
recruitment of DNA helicase to telomere DNA. Consistent with the
real-time PCR data, IF-FISH data showed that the DNA helicase Recql4 and
Blm were up-regulated (Figure 5, B, C, Recql4, Blm), and the telomere
DNA signals significantly increased after Bazhen decoction treatment
(Figure 5, B, C, Telomere), the colocalization of DNA helicase Recql4
with telomere DNA increased (Figure 5, B, C, Telomere & Recql4, white
arrows), same with the Blm (Figure 5, B, C, Telomere & Blm, white
arrows). These data suggest that Bazhen decoction up-regulated DNA
helicases and also facilitated the recruitment of DNA helicases to the
telomere DNA, which might promote G4 structure resolving and telomere
elongation.