TELOMERASE ACTIVITY IN ESOPHAGEAL-CARCINOMA

Background and Objectives: Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein that synt hesizes telomeric DNA. Immortalized and carcinoma cells show no loss o f telomere length during cell division. Telomerase activity has been d emonstrated in carcinomas of various organs, but not in nonneoplastic tissues. In patients with esophageal carcinoma, no data have been repo rted concerning the relationship between telomerase activity and clini copathological findings. Materials and Methods: Esophageal carcinomas from 31 patients and normal esophageal mucosae from 92 patients were e xamined. Telomeric Repeat Amplification Protocol assay to detect telom erase activity and Southern blot analysis to examine telomere length w ere performed. Results: Of the 31 carcinomas, 27 (87%) had detectable telomerase activity. Twenty-one (23%) of the 92 normal esophageal muco sae from autopsied patients also had detectable telomerase activity. T here was no difference between stage and outcome and absence or presen ce of telomerase activity. No difference in terminal restriction fragm ent (TRF) length was observed between carcinomas with and without telo merase activity. Conclusion: Telomerase activity was demonstrated in a considerable number of normal esophageal mucosae. This suggests the p ossibility of a high frequency of false positivity if the presence of telomerase activity alone is used as a tumor-specific marker. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.