Telomerase Activity in Transitional Cell Carcinoma of Bladder

Lee, Dong Hyeon; Yang, Seung Choul; Hong, Sung Joon; Chung, Byung Ha; Chung, Yoon Hyung

Abstract

Telomeres are the specialized structures at the end of all eukaryotic chromosomes that are thought to give important functions in protecting genomic DNA from degradation and deleterious recombination events. The enzyme telomerase maintains a constant telomere length observed in immortalized cells, allowing unlimited cell proliferation. Various cancer cells express telomerase activity. We analyzed telomerase activity in bladder tumors and normal tissues. Bladder tumor tissues and normal mucosa of 25 patients were obtained during transurethral resection of bladder (TURB) or after radical cystectomy. Telomerase activity was analyzed using telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay which is based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Twenty-three of 25 bladder tumor tissue were transitional cell carcinomas and remains were urothelial hyperplasia and inverted papilloma, respectively. We observed telomerase activity in 22 of 23 bladder cancer tissues (95.7%); only one did not express telomerase activity. Telomerase activity was not detected in all normal tissues except one, which was obtained from a patient with carcinoma in situ. Urothelial hyperplasia and inverted papilloma did not express telomerase activity. Our data demonstrates that the majority of human bladder cancers obtained from patients with transitional cell carcinoma expressed telomerase activity whereas urothelial hyperplasia and inverted papilloma did not. It indicates that telomerase activity may be a important role in carcinogenesis.