Hohaus S, Cavallo S, Bellacosa A, Genuardi M, Galli J, Cadoni G, Almadori G, Lauriola L, Litwin S, Maurizi M, Neri G
Institutes of Medical Genetics, Otorhinolaryngology and Pathology, Università Cattolica S. Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy.
Clin Cancer Res. 1996 Nov;2(11):1895-900.
The activation of telomerase has been shown to be an important step during tumorigenesis in a variety of malignancies and is associated with characteristics of cellular immortality, such as indefinite proliferative potential. We studied telomerase activity in a series of human laryngeal carcinomas. Thirty-six tumors from 35 patients were studied using a sensitive PCR-based technique, the telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay. Telomerase activity was present in 32 tumors (89%), and the level of activity correlated with the stage of disease. In two of four telomerase-negative tumors, we found evidence of an inhibitor of telomerase activity. In many cases, samples of mucosa surrounding the tumor were also studied, and telomerase could be detected in 16 of 21 patients. For this reason, we proceeded to perform a topographical analysis that demonstrated a pattern of telomerase activity suggestive of a spread of telomerase-positive cells. In conclusion, these data indicate that telomerase activation is important for laryngeal carcinogenesis and that telomerase assay might be a valuable addition to determine the spread of the disease.
端粒酶的激活已被证明是多种恶性肿瘤发生过程中的一个重要步骤，并且与细胞永生的特征相关，如无限增殖潜能。我们研究了一系列人类喉癌中的端粒酶活性。使用基于聚合酶链反应（PCR）的敏感技术——端粒重复序列扩增协议分析（TRAP 分析），对 35 例患者的 36 个肿瘤进行了研究。32 个肿瘤（89%）存在端粒酶活性，且活性水平与疾病分期相关。在四个端粒酶阴性肿瘤中的两个，我们发现了端粒酶活性抑制剂的证据。在许多情况下，还对肿瘤周围的黏膜样本进行了研究，21 例患者中有 16 例可检测到端粒酶。因此，我们进行了一项地形分析，结果显示端粒酶活性模式提示端粒酶阳性细胞的扩散。总之，这些数据表明端粒酶激活对喉癌发生很重要，并且端粒酶检测可能是确定疾病扩散的一项有价值的补充。
