Telomerase activity in human gliomas

Le, S., Zhu, J. J., Anthony, D. C., Greider, C. W., Black, P. M. (May 1998) Telomerase activity in human gliomas. Neurosurgery, 42 (5). 1120-4; discussion 1124. ISSN 0148-396X (Print)

URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9588558

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Telomerase activity, which is undetectable in most mature normal tissues, has been identified in many types of human cancers, including neuroblastomas and oligodendrogliomas. These findings suggest that a novel mechanism in addition to activation of oncogenes and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes may play an important role in tumorigenesis. The goal of the present study was to assess and correlate the telomerase activity in astrocytic gliomas of different grades. METHODS: Telomere repeat amplification protocol and Southern blot hybridization with telomere-specific probes were used to detect telomerase activity and to measure terminal restriction fragment length, respectively. RESULTS: Telomerase activity was detected in 3 of 9 (33%) low-grade astrocytomas (World Health Organization Grade II), 5 of 11 (45%) anaplastic astrocytomas (World Health Organization Grade III), 36 of 41 (89%) glioblastomas multiforme (World Health Organization Grade IV), 3 of 4 (75%) oligodendrogliomas, and none of 4 normal brain specimens. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that telomerase activity is absent in normal brain tissues while present in most glioma samples (72%). The frequency of such activity increases with malignancy. These results suggest that telomerase activity may be used as a tumor marker and that the activation of telomerase may correlate with initiation and malignant progression of astrocytic tumors.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: Astrocytoma/enzymology/pathology Brain/ enzymology Brain Neoplasms/ enzymology/pathology Comparative Study DNA, Neoplasm/analysis Glioblastoma/enzymology/pathology Glioma/ enzymology/pathology Humans Neoplasm Proteins/ analysis Oligodendroglioma/enzymology/pathology Pilot Projects Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. Telomerase/ analysis Telomere/chemistry
Subjects: diseases & disorders > neoplasms
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > organs types and functions > brain
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > protein structure, function, modification > protein types > enzymes > telomerase
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs
Depositing User: Kathleen Darby
Date: May 1998
Date Deposited: 01 May 2014 19:12
Last Modified: 01 May 2014 19:12
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/29904

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