Technical improvement in determining telomerase activity in hematologic neoplasias: a possibility of single cell determination of telomerase activity.
Chromosome termini, telomeres, provide important protective structure to avoid loss of master gene(s) that may present at subtelomeric regions. Since the telomere length might reflect the cell division, some biological aspects, including cellular senescence and cancer biology, of telomere length have been reported. To maintain a telomere length related to cell immortality, reactivation of telomerase in cancer cells is observed in approximately 85% of more than 1500 samples obtained from primary cancer tissues. Thus, telomerase is considered to be a new marker of neoplasias. In this paper, we present new techniques, including fluorescent TRAP that makes it possible to detect telomerase activity semi-quantitatively and in situ TRAP assay that allows us to determine the exact telomerase-positive cells.
Ohyashiki
K
K
First Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical College.
Ohyashiki
J H
JH
Toyama
K
K
D001773:Blood Cells / Q000201:enzymology; D005453:Fluorescence; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000201:enzymology*; D008722:Methods; D019098:Telomerase / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood
D019098:Telomerase