Lee D H, Yang S C, Hong S J, Chung B H, Kim I Y
Department of Urology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Clin Cancer Res. 1998 Mar;4(3):535-8.
Telomerase is an enzyme that immortalizes cells by maintaining a constant telomere length. Here, telomerase activity in bladder washes was analyzed and compared with the final pathological diagnosis in 23 patients with bladder transitional cell carcinoma (TCC). Bladder washes and normal tissues were obtained from each patient prior to transurethral resection of bladder tumor. Telomerase activity was detected using telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay based on PCR. Cytological diagnosis of centrifuged cells from bladder washes was made using Papanicolau's stain. Results demonstrated that telomerase activity was detected in 95.7% of both cancer tissues and bladder washes. In normal tissues, telomerase activity was not detected in 22 of 23 samples. Regarding cytological diagnosis, only 69.6% of bladder wash samples had positive cytology. Moreover, in five cases of grade 1 TCC, only 20% of the cytological specimens were positive for malignancy, whereas 80% showed positive telomerase activity. These results demonstrate that telomerase activity is detectable in a majority of human bladder cancer tissues and bladder washes obtained from patients with TCC. In addition, results of this study suggest that the presence of telomerase in bladder washes may be a specific marker of bladder cancer, especially in low-grade tumors.
端粒酶是一种通过维持端粒长度恒定使细胞永生化的酶。在此，对23例膀胱移行细胞癌（TCC）患者膀胱冲洗液中的端粒酶活性进行了分析，并与最终病理诊断结果进行了比较。在经尿道膀胱肿瘤切除术之前，从每位患者获取膀胱冲洗液和正常组织。基于PCR的端粒重复序列扩增法检测端粒酶活性。采用巴氏染色法对膀胱冲洗液离心后的细胞进行细胞学诊断。结果显示，95.7%的癌组织和膀胱冲洗液中检测到端粒酶活性。在正常组织中，23个样本中有22个未检测到端粒酶活性。关于细胞学诊断，仅69.6%的膀胱冲洗液样本细胞学检查呈阳性。此外，在5例1级TCC患者中，仅20%的细胞学标本恶性检查呈阳性，而80%显示端粒酶活性阳性。这些结果表明，在大多数人类膀胱癌组织以及TCC患者的膀胱冲洗液中可检测到端粒酶活性。此外，本研究结果提示，膀胱冲洗液中端粒酶的存在可能是膀胱癌的一个特异性标志物，尤其是在低级别肿瘤中。
