Correlation between expression of telomerase subunits and telomerase activity in human esophageal carcinoma

  Objective   To examine the expression of telomerase subunits in esophageal cell carcinoma(ECC), and to evaluate the correlation of theirexpression with telomer ase activity.

  Methods   29 esophageal cell carcinomas, 47 epithelial dysplasia tissues, and 29 corresponding adjacent normal tissues were analyzed by the rev erse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction technique for the expression of telomerase subunits and by telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay for telomerase activity.

  Results   There were significant differences on telomerase activity among esophageal cell carcinomas, epithelial dysplasia tissues, and corresponding adjacent normal tissues(P < 0.001).There were no significant differences on the expression of hTRor TPImRNA in the above esopbag eal tissues(P > 0.05).In contrast, there were significant differences on the hTERT mRNA expression among them(P < 0.001).Activation of telomerase activity was correlated with the hTERT mRNA expression in 105 esophageal tissues(P < 0.001), and there were no correlation between telomerase activity and hTRor TP1 mRNA expression(P > 0.05).

  Conclusion   Telomerase activation might played a critical role in ECC.Activation of telom erase activity was strongly correlated with hTERT mRNA expression; Telomerase could be a potential biomarker for ECC.