| Research Abstract |
Our department has been equipped with a fluorescence microscope (Carl Zeiss, Germany), a CCD camera, and facilities for karyotype software, and a fluorescence microscope set produced (Nikon, Japan) was equipped with them. Furthermore, Dr. Steven Poon (BC Cancer Center, Canada) was invited to collaborate in 2007. The software package Tissue Telo version 2, which is a program for determination of telomeres, has been installed in the computers of our laboratory to reinforce our existing equipment for telomere length measurement. As a result, we were able to successfully measure telomere lengths in each of the p/q arms in metaphase chromosomes, and determine telomere lengths of individual cells in histologic sections. Our institution is the first to have been able to measure telomere lengths using metaphase spreads and tissue sections, and we have been able to accumulate a large amount of data about telomere lengths using the software. Telomere length analysis in vivo using tissue Q-FISH h
… More
as been completed for the esophagus, stomach, breast, and lingual mucosa, and the location of stem cells in the esophagus and lingual mucosa has been suggested. Analysis of the colonic mucosa, thyroid, parathyroid, and liver is now under way. Telomere length analysis using Q-FISH has been completed for each if the p/q arms in each chromosome of normal fibroblasts (TIG series). Reduction of telomere lengths in cells as they approach senescence has been analyzed, and the data have revealed that there are no chromosomes with specifically shortened telomeres. Telomere length analysis of cells originating from non-cancerous and cancerous esophageal epithelium has revealed telomere-shortening in cancerous cells, but no specific chromosomes with shorter telomeres. Telomere length analysis of cells originating from patients with Werner's syndrome and 18- or 21-trisomy has also been accomplished, and this has revealed that the telomere lengths of chromosomes 18 and 21 are not significantly shorter than those of other chromosomes. Less
|
