title: [Telomere shortening in the pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the role of telomere shortening in the pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Southern blotting was employed to determine the mean telomere length (MTL) in 42 tumor samples and 15 samples of the tissues adjacent to the tumors obtained from 42 NPC patients, along with the tissue specimens from 17 patients with chronic nasopharyngitis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In NPC tissues, the length of the MTL was 4.5+/-2.3 kb, obviously shorter than those of the MTL in tissues adjacent to the tumor 14.6+/-2.8 kb and in chronic nasopharyngitis 15.8+/-3.1 kb.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Telomere shortening may play an important role in the pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal epithelium cell malignancies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Zhujiang Hospital, First Military Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, China.
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Jian-Yun
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Meng-He
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*