| Research Abstract |
1) Telomerase activity was detected in 88% of ovarian malignant tumors and in 100% of malignant tumors of the uterine corpus, the uterine cervix, and the vagina. While telomerase activity was not detected in the normal cervices and benign tumors, such as condyloma acuminatum and uterine leiomyoma.
2) Telomerase activity was found in HPV-immortalized and cigarette smoke condensate-transformed malignant cell lines established in a cervical carcinogenesis model and in cell lines derived from CINs and carcinomas, which suggests that telomerase activation is a relatively early event in cervical carcinogenesis.
3) Telomerase activity was detected in 8% of normal cervices, in 45% of patients with CIN (26% of patients with CIN I, 35% of CIN II, and 68% of CIN III, respectively), and in 97% of patients with invasive carcinoma. The results suggest that telomerase activation is an relatively early event in cervical carcinogenesis and correlates well with grade of cervical lesions.
4) Telomerase activity and HPV DNA sequences were examined in the exfoliated cervical cells from a general population of 245 women. Cytology revealed only one abnormal smear (1/245, 0.4%), in which a CIN I lesion positive for low-risk HPV DNA was found but the telomerase actiivity was negative. Telomerase activity was found in 16 exfoliated cell samples (16/245, 6.5%), high-risk HPV DNA was found in nine of these samples (9/16, 56%), and nine of the biopsy specimens that could be evaluated from patients testing positive for telomerase revealed CIN I lesions (9/11, 82%), which suggests that telomerase activity is often associated with high-risk HPV infection and that telomerase assay can help to detect occult cervical lesions.
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