Table 3.

Comparison of telomerase activity and expression of telomerase-related genes. Expression of hTR, WT hTERT and α-spliced hTERT in fetal heart, kidney and liver refer to data from [8,9] while data for brain are from this study. Numbers correspond to post-conception weeks at which hTR, WT hTERT or α-spliced hTERT were downregulated. PCW is two weeks more than the gestational weeks shown in [8,9].

Tissue	Decrease of TA (PCW)	hTR expression (PCW)	WT hTERT expression (PCW)	α-spliced hTERT expression (PCW)
Heart	11	maintained	11	Not detected
Kidney	15	maintained	16	9
Liver, Lung, Spleen	maintained	maintained	maintained	maintained
Brain	17	Downregulated from 6 towards 19/20	19/20	Increased from 6 towards 19/20