METHODS FOR DETECTION OF TELOMERASE ACTIV ITY IN TISSUE SAMPLES - DIAGNOSTIC AND PRONOSTIC VALUE

Telomerase activation has been shown to be an almost universal propert y of malignant rumors evoking its role in the immortalisation process. We used the recently described sensitive and rapid detection assay ca lled telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) to detect telomera se activity in neoplastic and non neoplastic tissues. Human telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein which functions as a telomere terminal transfe rase by adding multiple repeats of the TTAGGG hexamer at the 3'-OH end s of either-telomeres or oligonucleotide specifically designed for the TRAP assay. Whenever present, telomerase activity is revealed on acry lamide gel by a six nucleotide ladder of extension products. Detection of telomerase activity may be evaluated for differentiating neoplasti c from non neoplastic tissues. In addition, quantitation of telomerase activity may serve as pronostic marker for malignant tumors.